European Spatial-Temporal Large Scale Sea Noise Management & Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Marine Megafauna – EUROPAM

EUROPAM is a research project that proposes comparative spatio-temporal acoustic survey of megafauna biodiversity, and its management at a European scale. EUROPAM is based on innovative scientific instrumentation and algorithms, the Bombyx sonobuoys, to increase the knowledge of anthropogenic impacts on marine life, on a wide scale that allows comparison between locations and type of disturbances, and also between some population segments. It is composed of researchers from many different fields, making the project federative and multi-disciplinary. The ultimate objectives of real-time, high-quality acoustic observations are the efficient management and the generation of long-term statistics. EUROPAM will: (1) develop comparative continuous passive acoustic monitoring in the Mediterranean Sea, the Azores and off-shore Norway; (2) compare marine soundscapes considering quiet marine protected areas vs. areas under strong human pressure; (3) describe marine soundscapes and their natural patterns and dynamics (daily and seasonal) and feed marine soundscape data into repositories; (4) develop protocols to calibrate measurements and provide comparable data across a large range of temporal and spatial scales; and (5) support whale-ship collision risk mitigation procedures. EUROPAM is considering biotic and abiotic ocean soundscapes, and oceanic parameters. In the biotic soundscape. The objective is to quantify anthropogenic noise sources, identify and track marine mammals, while in the abiotic soundscape, the objective is to monitor acoustic features driven by local climate and meteorological events. EUROPAM will identify conservation areas and seasonality of species diversity, compare noisy with quiet areas, and measure noise level changes in relation to wind farm construction and to new offshore industrial activities. The project will monitor sea regions which are expected to be highly impacted by climate change, by industrial development and by increasing marine traffic. It addresses the topics highlighted in Theme 1 of this call, by establishing a comprehensive understanding of effective and resilient ecological networks, while contributing to enhanced species-based protection using state-of-the-art methodology. Also, it will lead to better knowledge of the megafauna in the international marine mammal sanctuary PELAGOS, in Azores and along the Norwegian coast. EUROPAM will bring new types of observatories for marine mammal survey and protection and will participate in novel whale-ship anti-collision mitigation in high trafficked areas like between Italy and France. Thus, it will also assess the costs of biodiversity loss and conservation outcomes in the context of vessel traffic management, highlighted in Themes 2 + 3. It will help to regulate fishery and whale-watching interactions with sea mammals. In the waters of the European Union, it also considers acoustic pollution according to the descriptor 11 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.