Data from: Long-term sound and movement recording tags to study natural behaviour and reaction to ship noise of seals

The impact of anthropogenic noise on marine fauna is of increasing
conservation concern with vessel noise being one of the major
contributors. Animals that rely on shallow coastal habitats may be
especially vulnerable to this form of pollution. Very limited information
is available on how much noise from ship traffic individual animals
experience, and how they may react to it due to a lack of suitable
methods. To address this, we developed long‐duration audio and 3D‐movement
tags (DTAGs) and deployed them on three harbor seals and two gray seals in
the North Sea during 2015–2016. These tags recorded sound, accelerometry,
magnetometry, and pressure continuously for up to 21 days. GPS positions
were also sampled for one seal continuously throughout the recording
period. A separate tag, combining a camera and an accelerometer logger,
was deployed on two harbor seals to visualize specific behaviors that
helped interpret accelerometer signals in the DTAG data. Combining data
from depth, accelerometer, and audio sensors, we found that animals spent
6.6%–42.3% of the time hauled out (either on land or partly submerged),
and 5.3%–12.4% of their at‐sea time resting at the sea bottom, while the
remaining time was used for traveling, resting at surface, and foraging.
Animals were exposed to audible vessel noise 2.2%–20.5% of their time when
in water, and we demonstrate that interruption of functional behaviors
(e.g., resting) in some cases coincides with high‐level vessel noise.
Two‐thirds of the ship noise events were traceable by the AIS vessel
tracking system, while one‐third comprised vessels without AIS. This
preliminary study demonstrates how concomitant long‐term continuous
broadband on‐animal sound and movement recordings may be an important tool
in future quantification of disturbance effects of anthropogenic
activities at sea and assessment of long‐term population impacts on
pinnipeds.

人为噪声对海洋动物的影响正日益受到保护学界的高度关注，而船舶噪声正是其主要贡献源之一。依赖浅海近岸生境的海洋动物对这类污染尤为脆弱。由于缺乏合适的研究方法，目前关于船舶交通噪声对单个动物的暴露量，以及动物对此的响应机制，相关信息仍十分有限。为此，我们研发了长时程音频与三维运动追踪标签（DTAGs），并于2015至2016年间在北海海域将其部署于3头港海豹与2头灰海豹身上。该标签可连续记录声音、加速度、地磁与压力数据，最长记录时长可达21天；其中1头海豹的GPS定位数据在整个记录周期内被持续采样获取。我们还为2头港海豹部署了集成摄像头与加速度记录器的专用标签，用于可视化特定行为表现，以辅助解读DTAG数据中的加速度信号。通过整合深度、加速度与音频传感器的数据，我们发现受试动物有6.6%~42.3%的时间处于上岸或半潜状态，在海上活动时则有5.3%~12.4%的时间在海底休憩，剩余时间则用于巡游、海面休息与觅食。受试动物在水下活动时，有2.2%~20.5%的时间会暴露于可闻船舶噪声中；研究证实，部分情况下动物的功能性行为（如休憩）被中断，与高强度船舶噪声的出现时间相吻合。三分之二的船舶噪声事件可通过船舶自动识别系统（AIS）追溯来源，剩余三分之一则来自未开启AIS的船舶。本初步研究证实，同步开展的长期连续宽带式动物内置声频与运动记录方案，可作为未来量化海上人为活动干扰效应、评估其对鳍足类动物种群长期影响的重要研究工具。