ESRF Study | Transmission Loss Modelling of Seismic Airgun Sounds Predicted Received Levels, with Frequency Weighting, off Atlantic Canada
December 2018 — Atlantic Canada
An Environmental Studies Research Fund project
Part of ESRF Project 2014-02S, providing new results to inform future environmental assessments of human activities on Canada’s East Coast. Sound propagation from a seismic survey was modelled at 20 sites. The sites span nearly 15° of latitude along the Atlantic coast, including both areas of potential oil and gas development and less-sampled areas important to marine mammals. Sound propagation at the sites was modelled twice, first assuming a generic sandy seabed and then (at 14 of the sites) using estimated local seabed properties. Comparing the models showed that knowing the local bottom properties could lead to better predictions of sounds emanating from seismic surveys and their impacts on marine mammals.
