Johan Castberg Passive Acoustic Monitoring: Marine Mammal Acoustic Occurrence and Soundscape Analysis
September 2020 — Norway
Client: Equinor ASA
An analysis of underwater acoustic data measured at the Johan Castberg oil field in the southern Barents Sea at three locations from October 2018 until June 2019 to assess the presence of marine mammals and characterize the underwater soundscape. Five marine mammal species were detected during the study: fin, humpback, killer, sperm whales and a dolphin species whose signals were tentatively attributed to white-beaked dolphins. Because of the limited human activity recorded in the study area, the results provide a good baseline against which to assess the occurrence of marine mammals in the study area in the future.
