Underwater soundscape indicates low anthropogenic influence around two sub-Antarctic islands

Contributions and effects of anthropogenic activities on the underwater soundscape of the sub-Antarctic regions remain poorly studied. Over 21 months (April 2021 to December 2022), we recorded underwater noise levels amid two sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) within an offshore marine protected area (MPA) to quantitatively investigate the sources of underwater noise and the impact of such noise on the detectability of marine mammal vocalizations. We measured underwater noise levels within the low (20–120 and 121–800 Hz), medium (801–25000 Hz), and high (25001–48000 Hz) frequency bands. Wind speed was the primary predictor of low and medium-frequency underwater noise levels, whereas iceberg volume was the primary predictor at the high-frequency band. Probabilities of detecting vocalizations of Antarctic blue, fin, humpback, Antarctic minke, and killer whales decreased with increasing noise levels. On the contrary, probabilities of detecting sei and Madagascan pygmy blue whales i..., , # Underwater soundscape indicates low anthropogenic influence around two sub-Antarctic islands

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mtf](10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mtf)

## Description of the data and file structure

Acoustic data were collected between two sub-Antarctic islands, Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, Southern Ocean using a SoundTrap deployed 5 m off the seafloor. Marine mammal acoustic occurrence and underwater noise levels were determined from these collected data.

#### Files and variables

These files contain the formatted data on underwater noise levels, baleen and killer whale acoustic occurrence around the Prince Edward Islands, to reproduce the analyses presented in the paper.

**killers_processed_data_1hr.csv**: Contains data on the hourly acoustic presence of killer whale vocalizations and noise levels at different frequency bands for the period April 2021 to May 2022 used in the random forest model analysis.

* **Year**: The year when the data was collected.
* **Mont...,