Soundscape Characterization in Chedabucto Bay on the Atlantic Coast of Canada, 2019–2021

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Coastal Acoustic Monitoring Project aims to better understand the underwater soundscape at coastal sites off Nova Scotia, Canada. Researchers began deploying passive acoustic monitors for this project in December 2018. In order to compare the contribution of various sources of sound to the soundscape at the different sites, they have taken a sound energy budget approach. Here they present the results from their longest-running site, Chedabucto Bay, near the approaches to one of the largest ports in Nova Scotia. The percent contributions of wind, vessels, and “other” sources to the total sound energy budget for the 1/3 octave bands centered at 100 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 5 kHz, and 10 kHz were calculated. Vessel noise was the dominant contributor to sound energy in the lowest frequency band in almost every month except between August and November 2020, during which irregular vessel movements are suspected to have impacted the accuracy of the sound energy budget estimations. This sound energy budget approach is useful for comparing different sites, as well as the same site over time, but should be complemented by other analyses that can present information on levels of sound energy.