Impact of Shipping Noise on Marine Animals
Abstract: With increased human exploration and exploitation of the seas, our oceans have become noisier than ever, driven by an increase in commercial ships by more than 50% (in terms of deadweight). In Canada, recent demands have led to a 20% increase in commercial shipping traffic and the development of new seaport infrastructures to accommodate larger commercial vessels. With broadband noise in the 50Hz-10kHz range and source levels of 150-180 dB, there is a clear need to further study the environmental impact of such noise generation. The effects of underwater radiated noise (URN) on various components of the marine ecosystem, from mussels to marine mammals, have been extensively studied in different disciplines. Responses to noise vary between: (I) audibility, (II) behavioral responses and stress reflected in altered vocalizations, (III) masking of sounds necessary for communication, localization, and foraging, (IV) physiological auditory threshold shifts, and (V) physical damage (injury) to the auditory system. Due to these effects, ship noise is considered a source of environmental pollution and should be monitored regularly through ship noise measurements. In this presentation we will discuss the impact of increasing shipping activities on the health of marine biofauna. We will learn what regulatory measures are currently being proposed to mitigate noise pollution at global, regional and local levels. We will also present the activities of our laboratory to measure, detect and assess the impact of ship noise. Finally, we will present a unique, open-access dataset for URN from small ships and make the surprising observation that the noise from small ships is comparable to that from large ships.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 26 May 2025
- Time: 09:00 PM UTC to 10:00 PM UTC
-
Add Event to Calendar
- 6250 Applied Science Lane
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Canada V6T1Z4
- Building: UBC Civil and Mechanical Engineering Building
- Room Number: CEME 2202
Speakers
Roee Diamant of Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa
Biography:
Roee Diamant is a Prof. at the Dept. of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, and heads the underwater Acoustic and Navigation Laboratory (ANL). He received his PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, in 2013, and his B.Sc. and the M.Sc. degrees from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in 2002 and 2007, respectively. From 2001 to 2009, he worked in Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel, as a project manager and systems engineer, where he developed a commercial underwater modem with network capabilities. In 2015 and 2016, he was a visiting Prof. at the University of Padova, Italy. In 2009, he received the Israel Excellent Worker First Place Award from the Israeli Presidential Institute. In 2010, he received the NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Prof. Diamant has received three Best Paper awards and serves as an associate editor for Nature Scientific Reports. He was the coordinator of the EU H2020 project SYMBIOSIS (BG-14 track), and is the recipient of the EU ERA-Chair appointment to the University of Zagreb, Croatia. His research interests include underwater acoustic communication, underwater localization and navigation, object detection and classification, and sonar signal processing.
Email:
