TY - JOUR
TI - Effect of pile-driving sounds on harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) hearing
AU - Kastelein, R
AU - Helder-Hoek, L
AU - Kommeren, A
AU - Covi, J
AU - Gransier, R
T2 - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
AB - Seals exposed to intense sounds may suffer hearing loss. After exposure to playbacks of broadband pile-driving sounds, the temporary hearing threshold shift (TTS) of two harbor seals was quantified at 4 and 8 kHz (frequencies of the highest TTS) with a psychoacoustic technique. The pile-driving sounds had: a 127 ms pulse duration, 2760 strikes per h, a 1.3 s inter-pulse interval, a similar to 9.5% duty cycle, and an average received single-strike unweighted sound exposure level (SELss) of 151dB re 1µPa2s. Exposure durations were 180 and 360 min [cumulative sound exposure level (SELcum): 190 and 193 dB re 1µPa2s]. Control sessions were conducted under low ambient noise. TTS only occurred after 360 min exposures (mean TTS: seal 02, 1-4min after sound stopped: 3.9 dB at 4 kHz and 2.4 dB at 8 kHz; seal 01, 12-16min after sound stopped: 2.8 dB at 4 kHz and 2.6 dB at 8 kHz). Hearing recovered within 60min post-exposure. The TTSs were small, due to the small amount of sound energy to which the seals were exposed. Biological TTS onset SELcum for the pile-driving sounds used in this study is around 192 dB re 1µPa2s (for mean received SELss of 151 dB re 1µPa and a duty cycle of similar to 9.5%).
DA - 2018/06//
PY - 2018
VL - 143
IS - 6
SP - 3583
EP - 3594
UR - https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.5040493
DO - 10.1121/1.5040493
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Noise
KW - Marine Mammals
KW - Pinnipeds
ER -