Marine Pollution Bulletin 198 (2024) 115891 
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Marine Pollution Bulletin 
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The underwater soundscape of the North Sea 
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F. Basan *”, J.-G. Fischer®, R. Putland”, J. Brinkkemper“, C.A.F. de Jong dB. Binnerts 4, 
A. Norro ©, D. Kühnel®, L.-A. Odegaard * M. Andersson®, E. Lalander®, J. Tougaard h 
E.T. Griffiths h M. Kosecka h E. Edwards‘, N.D. Merchant b K. de Jong), S. Robinson k L. Wang KK 
N. Kinneging! 
* Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), Germany 
>? Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), United Kingdom 
WaterProof Marine Consultancy & Services B.V., Netherlands 
1 Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Netherlands 
” Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Belgium 
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFD, Norway 
* Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Sweden 
° Aarhus University (AU), Department of Ecoscience, Denmark 
Marine Scotland (MS), United Kingdom 
Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway 
‘ National Physical Laboratory (NPL), United Kingdom 
Rükswaterstaat (RWS), Netherlands 
ARTICLE INFO 
ABSTRAC1 
Keywords: 
Soundscape 
North Sea 
JOMOPANS 
Jnderwater acoustics 
Monitoring 
As awareness on the impact of anthropogenic underwater noise on marine life grows, underwater noise mea- 
surement programs are needed to determine the current status of marine areas and monitor long-term trends. The 
"oint Monitoring Programme for Ambient Noise in the North Sea (JOMOPANS) collaborative project was funded 
»y the EU Interreg to collect a unique dataset of underwater noise levels at 19 sites across the North Sea, 
spanning many different countries and covering the period from 2019 to 2020. The ambient noise from this 
lataset has been characterised and compared - setting a benchmark for future measurements in the North Sea 
area. By identifying clusters with similar sound characteristics in three broadband frequency bands (25-160 Hz, 
).2-1.6 kHz, and 2-10 kHz), geographical areas that are similarly affected by sound have been identified. The 
measured underwater sound levels show a persistent and spatially uniform correlation with wind speed at high 
requencies (above 1 kHz) and a correlation with the distance from ships at mid and high frequencies (between 
40 Hz and 4 kHz). Correlation with ocean current velocity at low frequencies (up to 200 Hz), which are sus- 
septible to nonacoustic contamination by flow noise, was also evaluated. These correlations were evaluated and 
simplified linear scaling laws for wind and current speeds were derived. The presented dataset provides a 
»aseline for underwater noise measurements in the North Sea and shows that spatial variability of the dominant 
sound sources must be considered to predict the impact of noise reduction measures. 
1. Introduction 
amissions (e.g. Van Roy et al., 2022; Tattini and McBain, 2021; Wang 
at al., 2021; Olmer et al., 2017), the emission of underwater noise and 
the associated adverse effects on the marine environment are widely 
recognized. As the number of ships operating on the world's oceans in- 
zreases, so does concern about the effects of ship noise on aquatic life 
‘Hildebrand, 2009; Frisk, 2012; Ainslie et al., 2021). 
Research studies in recent decades have shown that shipping noise 
can affect the behaviour and physiology of sensitive species of marine 
The North Sea is one of the busiest maritime areas in the world, 
cherefore it is particularly affected by the environmental impacts asso- 
ciated with exploiting the oceans for transport and energy extraction. 
Jnintended by-products of shipping, including air pollution and un- 
derwater radiated noise (URN), raise concerns for conservation and 
resource management. Along with the dilemma of the greenhouse gas 
* Corresponding author. 
E-mail address: fritiof.basan@bsh.de {F. Basan). 
nttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115891 
Received 28 August 2023; Received in revised form 23 November 2023; Accepted 2 December 2023 
Available online 14 December 2023 
J025-326X/Crown Copyright © 2023 Published by Filsevier Ltd 
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