Noise exposure from commercial shipping for the southern resident killer whale population

Cominelli, S., R. Devillers, H. Yurk, A. MacGillivray, L. McWhinnie, and R. Canessa

Marine Pollution Bulletin 136: 177-200 (2018)

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.08.050

This study assesses vessel-noise exposure levels for Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) in the Salish Sea. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) was used to delineate SRKW summer core areas. Those areas were combined with the output of a regional cumulative noise model describing sound level variations generated by commercial vessels (1/3-octave-bands from 10 Hz to 63.1 kHz). Cumulative distribution functions were used to evaluate SRKW's noise exposure from 15 vessel categories over three zones located within the KDE. Median cumulative noise values were used to group categories based on the associated exposure levels. Ferries, Tugboats, Vehicle Carriers, Recreational Vessels, Containers, and Bulkers showed high levels of exposure (Leq−50th > 90 dB re 1 μPa) within SRKW core areas. Management actions aiming at reducing SRKW noise exposure during the summer should target the abovementioned categories and take into consideration the spatial distribution of their levels of exposure, their mechanical and their operational characteristics.

Passive acoustic detection and estimation of the number of sources using compact arrays (PDF)

Urazghildiiev, I.R. and D.E. Hannay

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143: 2825-2833 (2018)

DOI: 10.1121/1.5037361

The problem of estimating the number of sound-producing sources detected using a compact array of hydrophones is addressed. Closed form expressions representing the techniques of automatic detection and estimation of the number of callers are given. Their performance is evaluated on a year-long dataset (1 October 2015–6 October 2016) containing humpback whale and killer whale calls collected in the Strait of Georgia, near Vancouver, British Columbia. Manual verification of the automatic detections produced by the approach required ∼40 h.

Population consequences of disturbance by offshore oil and gas activity for endangered sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)

Farmer, N.A., K. Baker, D.G. Zeddies, S.L. Denes, D.P. Noren, L.P. Garrison, A. Machernis, E.M. Fougères, and M. Zykov

Biological Conservation 227: 189-204 (2018)

DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.09.006

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) populations are still recovering from massive population declines associated with commercial whaling operations. The species continues to face a suite of contemporary threats, including pollution, ship strikes, fisheries interactions, habitat loss and degradation, oil spills, and anthropogenic noise. The sperm whale stock in the northern Gulf of Mexico was exposed to oil from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill and is exposed to high levels of anthropogenic noises generated by geological and geophysical (G&G) surveys for hydrocarbon deposits. Population impacts from oil and gas activities were predicted from models that incorporated two stressors: (i) oil exposure from DWH and (ii) noise from G&G surveys. Oil exposure was projected to reduce survival and reproductive success, causing a mean stock decline of 26% by 2025. Additionally, exposure to underwater noise can adversely impact whale hearing, communication, foraging efficiency, and disturb essential behaviors. Exposures to G&G survey noise were determined by simulating individual movements through three-dimensional sound fields generated by different survey methods. Behavioral disturbance was evaluated as reduced foraging opportunities under four dose-response functions. Bioenergetic models tracked the depletion of reserves in blubber, muscle, and viscera. All simulations suggested significant reductions in relative fitness of reproductive females were a likely consequence of persistent disturbances to foraging behaviors. Under a 160 dB SPL unweighted dose-response function, up to 4.4 ± 0.3% of the stock may reach terminal starvation due to behavioral disturbance associated with future G&G surveys, leading to abortions, calf abandonment, and up to 25% greater stock declines beyond those predicted from DWH oil exposure. Uncertainty in our results emphasizes a need for further controlled exposure experiments to generate behavioral disturbance dose-response curves and detailed evaluation of individual resilience following disturbance events. Given our focus on a limited suite of threats and need for field verification of these modeled impacts, precautionary management application of our results is recommended for this endangered species.

Signals from the deep: Spatial and temporal acoustic occurrence of beaked whales off western Ireland (PDF)

Kowarski, K., J. Delarue, B. Martin, J. O’Brien, R. Meade, O.Ó. Cadhla, and S. Berrow

PLoS ONE 13: e0199431 (2018)

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199431

Little is known of the spatio-temporal occurrence of beaked whales off western Ireland, limiting the ability of Regulators to implement appropriate management and conservation measures. To address this knowledge gap, static acoustic monitoring was carried out using eight fixed bottom-mounted autonomous acoustic recorders: four from May to December 2015 on Ireland’s northern slope and four from March to November 2016 on the western and southern slopes. Recorders ran for 205 to 230 days, resulting in 4.09 TB of data sampled at 250 kHz which could capture beaked whale acoustic signals. Zero-crossing-based automated detectors identified beaked whale clicks. A sample of detections was manually validated to evaluate and optimize detector performance. Analysis confirmed the occurrence of Sowerby’s and Cuvier’s beaked whales and Northern bottlenose whales. Northern bottlenose whale clicks occurred in late summer and autumn, but were too few to allow further analysis. Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s clicks occurred at all stations throughout the monitoring period. There was a significant effect of month and station (latitude) on the mean daily number of click detections for both species. Cuvier’s clicks were more abundant at lower latitudes while Sowerby’s were greater at higher latitudes, particularly in the spring, suggesting a spatial segregation between species, possibly driven by prey preference. Cuvier’s occurrence increased in late autumn 2015 off northwest Porcupine Bank, a region of higher relative occurrence for each species. Seismic airgun shots, with daily sound exposure levels as high as 175 dB re 1 μPa^2·s, did not appear to impact the mean daily number of Cuvier’s or Sowerby’s beaked whale click detections. This work provides insight into the significance of Irish waters for beaked whales and highlights the importance of using acoustics for beaked whale monitoring.

Singing through winter nights: Seasonal and diel occurrence of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) calls in and around the Gully MPA, offshore eastern Canada (PDF)

Kowarski, K., C. Evers, H. Moors-Murphy, B. Martin, and S.L. Denes

Marine Mammal Science 34: 169-189 (2018)

DOI: 10.1111/mms.12447

Humpback whale use of areas off eastern Canada is poorly understood, a knowledge gap that could impact future conservation efforts. We describe the acoustic occurrence of humpback whales in and around the Gully Marine Protected Area (MPA), an eastern Scotian Shelf submarine canyon. Near-continuous acoustic recordings sampling at 16 kHz were collected from the MPA and nearby slope areas from October 2012 to September 2014 using near-bottom recorders. In an offshore region where humpbacks were thought to be rare, we observed calls from October to June with a peak in song and nonsong calls in December and January. This suggests that some individuals occur in Canadian waters in winter and the Gully region may be a North Atlantic humpback whale migratory corridor. Calls were predominantly songs indicating potential mating activities. Song and nonsong calls occurred more at sunset and during hours of darkness than during daylight. This study improves our understanding of the seasonal occurrence of humpback whales on the Scotian Slope and, more specifically, their use of an offshore protected area.

Underwater noise from pile driving of conductor casing at a deep-water oil platform (PDF)

MacGillivray, A.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143: 450-459 (2018)

DOI: 10.1121/1.5021554

Underwater noise from impact pile driving of 512 -m-long conductor casings was measured at a deep-water offshore oil platform in the Santa Barbara Channel. Beamforming measurements, obtained with a vertical array, confirmed that the primary wave front generated by hammering the conductor casing was a Mach cone propagating at an angle of 17.6° below the horizontal. Analysis of the processed array data also revealed the presence of high-frequency secondary waves at angles steeper than 45° below the horizontal. These secondary waves, which appeared to be generated near the sea-surface, dominated the acoustic spectrum of the pulses at frequencies above 1 kHz. Shallow hydrophone measurements outside the Mach cone showed clear evidence of a surface shadow zone, which was caused by the strong downward directivity of the source. Although reflected waves, diffraction, and secondary waves still produced sound inside the surface shadow zone, sound levels were 10–15 dB lower in this region. Long-term hydrophone measurements showed that there was little difference (±1 dB) in mean sound levels from impact hammering of different conductors installed at the same platform over three months.

Unknown beaked whale echolocation signals recorded off eastern New Zealand (PDF)

Giorli, G., K.T. Goetz, T. Kimberly, J. Delarue, E. Maxner, K.A. Kowarski, S. Bruce Martin, and C. McPherson

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143:EL285-EL291 (2018)

DOI: 10.1121/1.5032127

The echolocation signals of most beaked whale species are still unknown. In fact, out of the 22 species comprising the family Ziphiidae, only the echolocation pulses for 7 species have been clearly described. This study describes two distinct beaked whale echolocation signals recorded in the Cook Strait region using passive acoustic technology. These signals differ from previously described Ziphiid species clicks. A description of the time-frequency characteristics of the two signals is provided. Understanding the characteristics of these signals is necessary to correctly identify species from their echolocation signals and enables future monitoring of beaked whales using passive acoustics techniques.

Using a stationary compact array of acoustic sensors to estimate the motion parameters of sources (PDF)

Urazghildiiev, I.R. and D.E. Hannay

IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. 43: 1134–1142 (2018)

DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2017.2772984

Compact arrays of acoustic sensors can provide bearing measurements of detected sounds. An important application for compact arrays is estimating the motion parameters of sources. This work considers the problem of bearings-only estimating of the positions and heading angles of vessels in the presence of bearing and speed measurement errors. Statistical simulations are used to evaluate the dependence of bearing estimation accuracy on the duration of the observation interval and the variance of speed errors. Plots of range and heading estimation errors obtained for 171 vessel passes with known positions are presented. Test results demonstrate that the accuracy of the estimating range depends strongly on speed error variance.

Bowhead whale localization using time-difference-of-arrival data from asynchronous recorders (PDF)

Warner, G.A., S.E. Dosso, and D.E. Hannay

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 141: 1921-1935 (2017)

DOI: 10.1121/1.4978438

This paper estimates bowhead whale locations and uncertainties using nonlinear Bayesian inversion of the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) of low-frequency whale calls recorded on onmi-directional asynchronous recorders in the shallow waters of the northeastern Chukchi Sea, Alaska. A Y-shaped cluster of seven autonomous ocean-bottom hydrophones, separated by 0.5–9.2 km, was deployed for several months over which time their clocks drifted out of synchronization. Hundreds of recorded whale calls are manually associated between recorders. The TDOA between hydrophone pairs are calculated from filtered waveform cross correlations and depend on the whale locations, hydrophone locations, relative recorder clock offsets, and effective waveguide sound speed. A nonlinear Bayesian inversion estimates all of these parameters and their uncertainties as well as data error statistics. The problem is highly nonlinear and a linearized inversion did not produce physically realistic results. Whale location uncertainties from nonlinear inversion can be low enough to allow accurate tracking of migrating whales that vocalize repeatedly over several minutes. Estimates of clock drift rates are obtained from inversions of TDOA data over two weeks and agree with corresponding estimates obtained from long-time averaged ambient noise cross correlations. The inversion is suitable for application to large data sets of manually or automatically detected whale calls.

Characteristics of seismic survey pulses and the ambient soundscape in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay, West Greenland (PDF)

Martin, S.B., M.-N.R. Matthews, J.T. MacDonnell, and K. Bröker

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142: 3331-3346 (2017)

DOI: 10.1121/1.5014049

In 2012 a seismic survey campaign involving four vessels was conducted in Baffin Bay, West Greenland. Long-distance (150 km) pre-survey acoustic modeling was performed in accordance with regulatory requirements. Four acoustic recorders, three with hydrophones at 100, 200, and 400 m depths, measured ambient and anthropogenic sound during the survey. Additional recordings without the surveys were made from September 2013 to September 2014. The results show that (1) the soundscape of Baffin Bay is typical for open ocean environments and Melville Bay's soundscape is dominated by glacial ice noise; (2) there are distinct multipath arrivals of seismic pulses 40 km from the array; (3) seismic sound levels vary little as a function of depth; (4) high fidelity pre-survey acoustic propagation modeling produced reliable results; (5) the daily SEL did not exceed regulatory thresholds and were different using Southall, Bowles, Ellison, Finneran, Gentry, Greene, Kastak, Ketten, Miller, Nachtigall, Richardson, Thomas, and Tyack [(2007) Aquat. Mamm. 33, 411–521] or NOAA weightings [National Marine Fisheries Service (2016). NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-55, p. 178]; (6) fluctuations of SPL with range were better described by additive models than linear regression; and (7) the survey increased the 1-min SPL by 28 dB, with most of the energy below 100 Hz; energy in the 16 000 Hz octave band was 20 dB above the ambient background 6 km from the source.

Demonstrating the feasibility of near-real-time vessel noise mapping to manage marine mammal noise impacts (PDF)

Horwich, L., J. Prowse, A. MacGillivray, B. Martin, S. Molloy, W. Renaud, and D. Hannay

Canadian Acoustics 45(2): 13-15 (2017)

jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/3041

Man-made ocean noise can cause physical injury and behavioral disturbance to marine life. It hampers marine mammals’ use of sound for foraging, communicating, navigating, socializing, and mating. Advancements in acoustic recorders, ocean observatories, vessel tracking, and noise modelling allow us to study and manage the effects of vessel noise on marine life. This paper discusses a study for the Canadian Space Agency to investigate the feasibility of a user-controlled web interface that provides near-real-time prediction of vessel noise in marine life habitats. ‘ShipNoiseView’ integrates live vessel position data from the Satellite-Automatic Identification System (S-AIS) with real-time remote sensing of oceanographic data and verified vessel noise propagation models to assess cumulative vessel sound levels and to manage the effect of noise on marine life through real-time monitoring and mitigation.

Effects of 2D seismic on the snow crab fishery (PDF)

Morris, C.J., D. Cote, B. Martin, and D. Kehler

Fisheries Research 197: 67–77 (2017)

DOI: 10.1016/j.fishres.2017.09.012

Sound is used by a variety of marine taxa for feeding, reproduction, navigation and predator avoidance and therefore alterations to the soundscape from industrial noise have the potential to negatively affect an animal’s fitness. Furthermore, responses to industrial noise would also have the potential to negatively influence commercial fishing interests. Unfortunately marine invertebrates are generally underrepresented in the seismic effects literature. Snow crab harvesters in Atlantic Canada contend that seismic noise from widespread hydrocarbon exploration has strong negative effects on catch rates. We repeated a Before-After-Control-Impact study over two years to assess the effects of industry scale seismic exposure on catch rates of snow crab along the continental slope of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Our results did not support the contention that seismic activity negatively affects catch rates in shorter term (i.e. within days) or longer time frames (weeks). However, significant differences in catches were observed across study areas and years. While the inherent variability of the CPUE data limited the statistical power of this study, our results do suggest that if seismic effects on snow crab harvests do exist, they are smaller than changes related to natural spatial and temporal variation.

Long-term passive acoustic recordings track the changing distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) from 2004 to 2014 (PDF)

Davis, G.E. M.F. Baumgartner, J.M. Bonnell, J. Bell, C. Berchok, J. Bort Thornton, S. Brault, G. Buchanan, … J. Delarue, … B. Martin, et al.

Scientific Reports 7: 13460 (2017)

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13359-3

Given new distribution patterns of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW; Eubalaena glacialis) population in recent years, an improved understanding of spatio-temporal movements are imperative for the conservation of this species. While so far visual data have provided most information on NARW movements, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) was used in this study in order to better capture year-round NARW presence. This project used PAM data from 2004 to 2014 collected by 19 organizations throughout the western North Atlantic Ocean. Overall, data from 324 recorders (35,600 days) were processed and analyzed using a classification and detection system. Results highlight almost year-round habitat use of the western North Atlantic Ocean, with a decrease in detections in waters off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in summer and fall. Data collected post 2010 showed an increased NARW presence in the mid-Atlantic region and a simultaneous decrease in the northern Gulf of Maine. In addition, NARWs were widely distributed across most regions throughout winter months. This study demonstrates that a large-scale analysis of PAM data provides significant value to understanding and tracking shifts in large whale movements over long time scales.

Maximum likelihood estimators and Cramér-Rao bound for estimating azimuth and elevation angles using compact arrays (PDF)

Urazghildiiev, I.R. and D. Hannay

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 141: 2548-2555 (2017)

DOI: 10.1121/1.4979792

The problem of estimating the azimuth and elevation angle of a sound source using a compact array of hydrophones is addressed. The closed-form representations for several time-difference of arrival (TDOA) based estimators are given, and their accuracies are evaluated using both statistical simulations and in situ tests. Simulations demonstrated that the accuracy provided by the estimators is close to the Cramér–Rao bounds. In real conditions, the main cause of azimuth and elevation errors can be refraction, surface and bottom reflections and other unpredictable sound propagation effects resulting in large and slowly changing errors.

Seasonal trends in acoustic detection of marine mammals in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay, Northwest Greenland (PDF)

Frouin-Mouy, H., K. Kowarski, B. Martin, and K. Bröker

Arctic 70: 59-76 (2017)

DOI: 10.14430/arctic4632

The expansion of hydrocarbon exploration in northwest Greenland has made it increasingly important to understand the occurrence of marine mammals in the region. We describe the seasonal occurrence of marine mammals and the spatial distribution of their calls in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay. Four Autonomous Multichannel Acoustic Recorders (AMARs) were deployed during summer 2012 (late July to early October), five recorders during September 2013, and two recorders from late September 2013 to early September 2014. The call presence of several species was analyzed using automatic call detection and manual verification analysis methods. A novel approach to discern narwhal (Monodon monoceros) clicks from beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) clicks was implemented during the verification process. Narwhal calls were detected in spring and fall, showing a south-to-north migration pattern in spring and a north-to-south migration pattern in fall. Few beluga whales were detected during fall 2013 and spring 2014. Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) calls were detected mainly during spring (mating period). A small number of bowhead whale calls (Balaena mysticetus) were detected during fall 2013 and spring and summer 2014. For the first time at this latitude in Baffin Bay, long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were detected during summer and fall. Our results suggest that the presence of marine mammals in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay is governed mainly by the annual cycle of sea ice formation and decay.

Underwater noise from geotechnical drilling and standard penetration testing (PDF)

Erbe, C. and C. McPherson

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142: EL281-EL285 (2017)

DOI: 10.1121/1.5003328

Geotechnical site investigations prior to marine construction typically involve shallow, small-core drilling and standard penetration testing (SPT), during which a small tube is hammered into the ground at the bottom of the borehole. Drilling (120 kW, 83 mm diameter drillbit, 1500 rpm, 16–17 m drill depth in sand and mudstone) and SPT (50 mm diameter test tube, 15 mm wall thickness, 100 kg hammer, 1 m drop height) by a jack-up rig in 7–13 m of water were recorded with a drifting hydrophone at 10–50 m range. Source levels were 142–145 dB re 1 μPa rms @ 1 m (30–2000 Hz) for drilling and 151–160 dB re 1 μPa2s @ 1 m (20–24 000 Hz) for SPT.

Automatic grunt detector and recognizer for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) (PDF)

Urazghildiiev, I.R. and S.M. Van Parijs

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 139: 2532-2540 (2016)

DOI: 10.1121/1.4948569

Northwest Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) have been heavily overfished in recent years and have not yet recovered. Passive acoustic technology offers a new approach to identify the spatial location of spawning fish, as well as their seasonal and long term persistence in an area. To date, the lack of a species-specific detector has made searching for Atlantic cod grunts in large amounts of passive acoustic data cumbersome. To address this problem, an automatic grunt detection and recognition algorithm that processes yearlong passive acoustic data recordings was designed. The proposed technique is a two-stage hypothesis testing algorithm that includes detecting and recognizing all grunt-like sounds. Test results demonstrated that the algorithm provided a detection probability of 0.93 for grunts with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) higher than 10 dB, and a detection probability of 0.8 for grunts with the SNR ranging from 3 to 10 dB. This detector is being used to identify cod in current and historical data from U.S. waters. Its use has significantly reduced the time required to find and validate the presence of cod grunts.

Behavioural responses of western gray whales to a 4-D seismic survey off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia (PDF)

Gailey, G., O. Sychenko, T. McDonald, R. Racca, A. Rutenko, and K. Bröker

Endangered Species Research 30: 53-71 (2016)

DOI: 10.3354/esr00713

A seismic survey was conducted off the northeastern coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia in 2010. The survey area was adjacent to the only known near-shore feeding ground of the Critically Endangered population of western gray whales Eschrichtius robustus in the western Pacific south of the Aleutian Islands. This study examined the effectiveness of efforts to minimize the behavioural responses of the whales to vessel proximity and sound during the survey. Two shore-based behavioural observation teams monitored whale movements and respirations pre-, during and post-seismic survey. Theodolite tracking and focal-animal follow methods were used to collect behavioural data. Mixed linear models were used to examine deviations from ‘normal’ patterns in 10 movement and 7 respiration response variables in relation to vessel proximity, vessel/whale relative orientations and 8 received sound metrics to examine if seismic survey sound and/or vessel activity influenced the whales’ behaviour. Behavioural state and water depth were the best ‘natural’ predictors of whale movements and respiration. After considering natural variation, none of the response variables were significantly associated with seismic survey or vessel sounds. A whale’s distance from shore and its orientation relative to the closest vessel were found to be significantly influenced by vessel proximity, which suggested some non-sound related disturbance. The lack of evidence that the whales responded to seismic survey sound and vessel traffic by changing either their movement or respiration patterns could indicate that the current mitigation strategy is effective. However, power analyses suggest that our sample sizes were too small to detect subtle to moderate changes in gray whale behaviour.

Bowhead whale localization using asynchronous hydrophones in the Chukchi Sea (PDF)

Warner, G.A., S.E. Dosso, D.E. Hannay, and J. Dettmer

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 140: 20-34 (2016)

DOI: 10.1121/1.4954755

This paper estimates bowhead whale locations and uncertainties using non-linear Bayesian inversion of their modally-dispersed calls recorded on asynchronous recorders in the Chukchi Sea, Alaska. Bowhead calls were recorded on a cluster of 7 asynchronous ocean-bottom hydrophones that were separated by 0.5–9.2 km. A warping time-frequency analysis is used to extract relative mode arrival times as a function of frequency for nine frequency-modulated whale calls that dispersed in the shallow water environment. Each call was recorded on multiple hydrophones and the mode arrival times are inverted for: the whale location in the horizontal plane, source instantaneous frequency (IF), water sound-speed profile, seabed geoacoustic parameters, relative recorder clock drifts, and residual error standard deviations, all with estimated uncertainties. A simulation study shows that accurate prior environmental knowledge is not required for accurate localization as long as the inversion treats the environment as unknown. Joint inversion of multiple recorded calls is shown to substantially reduce uncertainties in location, source IF, and relative clock drift. Whale location uncertainties are estimated to be 30–160 m and relative clock drift uncertainties are 3–26 ms.

COMPILE—A generic benchmark case for predictions of marine pile-driving noise

Lippert, S., M. Nijhof, T. Lippert, D. Wilkes, A. Gavrilov, K. Heitmann, M. Ruhnau, O. von Estorff, A. Schäfke, … A. MacGillivray, … M. Wood, et al.

IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. 41: 1061-1071 (2016)

DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2016.2524738

The prediction of underwater noise emissions from impact pile driving during near-shore and offshore construction activities and its potential effect on the marine environment has been a major field of research for several years. A number of different modeling approaches have been suggested recently to predict the radiated sound pressure at different distances and depths from a driven pile. As there are no closed-form analytical solutions for this complex class of problems and for a lack of publicly available measurement data, the need for a benchmark case arises to compare the different approaches. Such a benchmark case was set up by the Institute of Modelling and Computation, Hamburg University of Technology (Hamburg, Germany) and the Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO, The Hague, The Netherlands). Research groups from all over the world, who are involved in modeling sound emissions from offshore pile driving, were invited to contribute to the first so-called COMPILE (a portmanteau combining computation, comparison, and pile) workshop in Hamburg in June 2014. In this paper, the benchmark case is presented, alongside an overview of the seven models and the associated results contributed by the research groups from six different countries. The modeling results from the workshop are discussed, exhibiting a remarkable consistency in the provided levels out to several tens of kilometers. Additionally, possible future benchmark case extensions are proposed.