Destroying and Restoring Critical Habitats of Endangered Killer Whales.

Endangered species legislation in the United States and Canada aims to prevent extinction of species, in part by designating and protecting critical habitats essential to ensure survival and recovery. These strict laws prohibit adverse modification or destruction of critical habitat, respectively. Defining thresholds for such effects is challenging, especially for wholly aquatic taxa.

A modelling comparison between received sound levels produced by a marine Vibroseis array and those from an airgun array for some typical seismic survey scenarios.

Marine Vibroseis (MV) may provide a marine seismic sound source that has less environmental impact than conventional airguns. Modelled sound levels from a realistic MV array and airgun array with similar downward energy at frequencies <100Hz were compared under three scenarios: shallow, deep, and slope. Changing the layout of the MV array's higher frequency sources reduced sound exposure levels (SELs) by 4dB.

Marine mammals and ocean noise: future directions and information needs with respect to science, policy and law in Canada.

Marine mammals are ecologically and culturally important species, and various countries have specific legislation to protect the welfare of individual marine mammals and the conservation of their populations. Anthropogenic noise represents a particular challenge for conservation and management. There is a large and growing body of research to support the conclusion that anthropogenic noise can affect marine mammal behavior, energetics, and physiology.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act at 40: status, recovery, and future of U.S. marine mammals.

Passed in 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act has two fundamental objectives: to maintain U.S. marine mammal stocks at their optimum sustainable populations and to uphold their ecological role in the ocean.

A critique of the UK's JNCC seismic survey guidelines for minimising acoustic disturbance to marine mammals: best practise?

The United Kingdom's statutory conservation agency, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), developed guidelines in 1995 to minimise acoustic disturbance of marine mammals by oil and gas industry seismic surveys. These were the first national guidelines to be developed and have subsequently become the standard, or basis, of international mitigation measures for noise pollution during seismic surveys. However, relatively few aspects of these measures have a firm scientific basis or proven efficacy.

Comparative review of marine mammal guidance implemented during naval exercises.

This article reviews the types and effectiveness of marine mammal mitigation measures used during some naval activities worldwide. The three main standard methods used to mitigate the potential impacts of naval sonar sound on marine mammals are (1) time/area planning (of exercises/active sonar use) to avoid marine mammals; (2) implementation of operational procedures (e.g.