Over the past century there have been significant global increases in anthropogenic underwater noise from a range of sources, such as commercial shipping, oil and gas exploration, recreational and military sound sources. Anthropogenic noise has been demonstrated to impact marine animals, in particular marine mammals that rely on sound for communication, foraging, and navigation. Sound exposure may impair hearing mechanisms temporarily or permanently, with impacts ranging from temporary behavioural responses and stress, to longer term habitat avoidance, hearing loss, or mortality. Commercial shipping is thought to contribute to a significant portion of the underwater noise generated by human activity, driven by marine transport network expansion, urbanization, and greater demand for natural resources. This project aimed to quantify underwater noise from ships in Australian waters, with the ultimate goal of guiding the management of noise impacts on marine fauna. This record describes a gridded map of cumulative sound exposure from shipping in the Australian EEZ for a typical April-September period.

Map of cumulative sound exposure from shipping in the GBR for winter 2015 (June-September).