Frontiers in Marine Science (Dec 2015)
From indoor to outdoor: Behavioural response of fish to noise exposure of different temporal structures
Abstract
Human activities, such as shipping and pile driving, produce substantial amounts of man-made noise underwater. The noise may negatively affect fish, causing physical injuries, hearing loss, physiological stress, acoustic masking and behavioural changes. Among these effects, behavioural changes are most problematic, but are understudied, especially under well-controlled field conditions. Moreover, man-made noise varies widely in terms of acoustic characteristics. The influence of temporal patterns of noise on the impacts is largely unknown. We exposed groups of European seabass to sound treatments of different temporal patterns, varying in intermittency, interval regularity and presence of amplitude 'ramp-up'. The study took place in a large octagonal floating pen (⌀ = ~12.5m) in Oosterschelde, a marine inlet in the Netherlands. We tracked the fish swimming trajectories with an acoustic 3D telemetry system and looked into the behavioural changes and recovery. Upon noise exposure, the fish swam to greater depths in tighter shoals, similar to previous studies conducted in a basin. Moreover, the fish swam away from the noise source, suggesting avoidance behaviour. The different temporal patterns seemed to differ in their impact strengths although the results were not significant. These findings may carry important scientific and management implications.
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