Underwater Acoustic Monitoring: Baffinland Iron Mines Shoulder Season Shipping 2019–2020
August 2021 — Nunavut, Canada
Client: Golder Associates, Ltd.
JASCO recorded underwater sound at two locations along a shipping route associated with Baffinland Iron Mine’s Mary River Mine on Baffin Island to measure noise levels from the icebreaker MSV Botnica. Noise was analyzed for 17 one-way transits, including those in open-water and in ice-covered conditions with ice concentrations between 0/10 and 9/10. For each transit, two standard metrics of vessel noise emissions were determined—underwater radiated noise levels and monopole source levels—as well as the distance at which sound levels exceeded the threshold for marine mammal behavioural disturbance from shipping.
