DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq37
title: Data from: Vessel noise prior to pile driving at offshore windfarm sites deters harbour porpoises from potential injury zones

description: Efforts to meet climate change targets are resulting in rapid and global
 expansion of offshore windfarms. In many regions, development areas are
 also used by protected marine mammals, requiring the assessment and
 mitigation of any risk of injury during construction and
 operation. For small cetaceans such as the harbour porpoise, there is
 particular concern over the risk of injury from impulsive noise should
 individuals remain within near-field injury zones during the installation
 of pile driven turbine foundations. Currently, this risk is assessed by
 comparing predicted noise levels at the start of piling with baseline
 estimates of animal density, which are, in turn, based on data collected
 at least one year earlier. However, vessel-based preparation work
 immediately prior to piling may displace animals, thus reducing any risk
 of injury when pile-driving begins. We investigated the effects of
 pre-piling activities on local soundscapes and harbour porpoise occurrence
 during the construction of two deep-water offshore windfarms in NE
 Scotland. Arrays of echolocation click detectors deployed at a sub-set of
 turbine sites were used to assess porpoise occurrence within a 5 km buffer
 during a 48-h period prior to the initiation of piling. In parallel, we
 characterised local vessel activity using AIS data and underwater
 broadband noise levels. We then used daily engineering records to
 characterise variation in construction activities and explore how porpoise
 occurrence varied during the 48 hours prior to piling. On average, vessels
 arrived onsite 11-15 h before the start of pile-driving activities at both
 windfarms. In both installation campaigns, harbour porpoise occurrence
 gradually declined by up to 33% during the 48 h prior to piling. This
 decrease in detections was associated with increased levels of
 vessel and pre-piling installation activities, and increased local
 underwater broadband noise levels. These results provide strong evidence
 of porpoise displacement prior to active mitigation activities,
 highlighting the need to account for disturbance from multiple sources
 when optimising mitigation measures aimed at reducing impacts of windfarm
 construction on protected marine mammal populations. 
description: Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) data were collected using
 echolocation click detectors (CPODs) and underwater noise recorders
 (SoundTrap). These data were processed and the presence/absence of harbour
 porpoise clicks and mean Sound Pressure Levels were summarised by hour
 relative to piling (HRP), per deployment, site and in relation to piling
 events.  Automated Identification System vessel-trcking
 data were purchased, processed and the vessel intensity, mean and minimum
 distance from vessels to PAM devices were summarised per HRP. 
 Daily engineering records were provided by the windfarm
 developpers and used to calculate the proportions of activities conducted
 by the piling vessel per HRP and windfarm and estimate the time of arrival
 of the piling vessel at construction sites. 
description: R can be used to open and run the R scripts and the R project.
 The .txt files can be opened with Notepad but can also be called directly
 in R using the R scripts. 
description: \# Title of Dataset:"Variation in soundscapes and harbour porpoise
 occurrence prior to pile\-driving at two offshore windfarms" \-\-\-
 Passive Acoustic Monitoring data collection was funded by the Marine
 Mammal Monitoring Programmes for the construction of the Beatrice and
 Moray East offshore windfarms. Contact for queries is Aude Benhemma-Le
 Gall, aude.benhemma-legall@abdn.ac.uk Automated Identification System
 vessel-tracking raw data are not shared in this repository, as the
 University of Aberdeen has signed a Data Licence Agreement. However,
 summaries of these vessel data are provided as txt file. \_\_\_ \#\# R
 scripts Name - Description \#\#\#
 1\_Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_Allocate\_HRP\_to\_piling\_timeline\.R Based on the
 piling timeline of both the Beatrice and Moray East offshore windfarms, we
 identifed piling bouts of at least 12 hours, filtered the subset of
 turbine locations where piling bouts had at least a three-day gap between
 the end of piling at the previous turbine location and the start of piling
 at the focal turbine location and allocated Hours Relative to Piling (HRP)
 from 48 hours prior to the start of Acoustic Deterence Devices (ADD) and
 piling activity. \#\#\#
 2\_Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_Estimate\_piling\_vessel\_arrival\_time\_at\_construction\_site\.R Using the piling vessel Daily Progress Reports and the hammer log reports, we estimated when the piling vessel anchored or jacked-up at the construction site. These preliminary analyses helped us decide to focus the main analyses on the period 48 hours prior to the start of piling at each location. We identified the locations at which the piling vessel arrived on site &gt; 48 hours before the start of piling activities. These locations will not be included in the main analyses. \#\#\# 3\_Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_Modelling\_HRP\_vs\_vessel\_intensity\_and\_porpoise\_occurrence\.R Variation in harbour porpoise occurrence and vessel intensity per hours relative to piling at a subset of piling locations are being investigated for both offshore windfarms. \#\#\# 4\_Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_Construction\_activities\_per\_HRP\.R The proportion of activities conducted by the piling vessel was estimated and visualised per hours relative to piling for a subset of piling locations. Variation in vessel intensity per activities is investigated and reported in the supplementary material. \#\#\# 5\_Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_Noise\_data\_modelling\.R Broadband noise levels recorded continuously over two weeks at each offshore windfarm site were analysed for a subset of three piling locations, from 24 hours prior to the start of piling. The minimum distance of any vessels and the mean distance from the piling vessel were included in the model when comparing the differences in broadband noise levels between the two windfarms. \#\# Description of the Data and file structure \_\_\_ \#\# DATA INPUT \_\_\_ \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Piling summary by 12 hour piling bout up to 27Feb20\.txt \* bout\_no: Piling bout ID \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* pile: Pile ID (i.e. FORE, MP, AFT) \* sttime: start of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* endtime: end of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* sttime.ADD: start of Acoustic Deterrent Device (ADD) use (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* endtime.ADD: end of ADD use (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Piling summary by piling bout with ADD activation\_2Feb18\.txt \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* pile\_no: Pile ID (i.e. A1, A2, B1, B2) \* bout\_no: Piling bout ID \* start\_time: start of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* end\_time: end of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* ADD\_st: start of ADD use (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* ADD\_end: end of ADD use (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_SHL Yudin DPR Data Record\_20180415\_corrected\.txt \* Date: Date of the Beatrice piling vessel activity (dd/mm/yyyy) \* Start time: Start time of activity (hh:mm, in BST) \* End time: End time of activity (hh:mm, in BST) \* SHL Task Code: Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL; independent offshore installation contractor) Task code \* Duration: Activity duration (hh:mm) \* BOWL Code: Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL) activity code \* Location: Piling vessel location \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Apollo activities May19\-February20\.txt \* Activity Group: Moray East piling vessel activity group ID \* Activity: Piling vessel actitivity \* Location: Piling vessel location \* Start: Start time of activity (hh:mm, in BST) \* Finish: End time of activity (hh:mm, in BST) \* Duration: Activity duration (hh:mm) \* Date: Date of the piling vessel activity (dd/mm/yyyy) \* sttime: Start date and time of activity (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in BST) \* endtime: End date and time of activity (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in BST) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Before\_hours\_relative\_to\_piling\_2017\-19\-20\.txt \* Posix: Date and time of CPOD data logger (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, in GMT) \* Porp.min: Number of harbour porpoise clicks logged per minute \* Nall: Number of clicks logged in one minute \* MinsOn: Number of minute logging data by CPOD \* Location.ID: CPOD site ID \* Deployment.no: CPOD deployment number \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* piling\_BA: Presence/abscense of ADD and piling activity \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* julday: Julian day ID \* year: Year \* month: Month of the year \* hour: Hour of the day [1;24] \* DPM: Harbour porpoise Detection Positive Minute (DPM): Presence/abscense of harbour porpoise clicks per minute \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Distance\_between\_CPOD\_OWT\.txt \* Depl\_loc: CPOD deployment number and site ID \* turbine\_ID: Wind turbine ID at which piling occurred \* distance.km: distance between the CPOD deployment site and the turbine/piling location (in km) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_PAM\_2017\_5km\_buffer\_48HRP\_Before\_without\_yudin\.txt \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_PAM\_2019\-20\_5km\_buffer\_48HRP\_Before\_without\_apollo\.txt \* Deployment.number: CPOD deployment number \* Location.ID: CPOD site ID \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* n\_boat: Number of AIS-vessels within a 5 km buffer around the CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* n\_AIS\_dot: Number of 5-min interpolated AIS dots within a 5 km buffer around the CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* duration\_min: Cumulative vessel duration (min) within a 5 km buffer area around CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* min\_dist: Minimum distance (per HRP) between CPOD site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that CPOD site \* mean\_dist: Mean distance (per HRP) between CPOD site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that CPOD site \* boat\_density: Number of individual AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* boat\_intensity: Sum of residence times for all AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_POD\_Deployments\_PAM\_Database\_20200708\.txt \* Deployment number: CPOD deployment number \* Deployment type: Project related to the deployment (i.e. Marine Mammal Monitoring Programme) \* POD number: CPOD unique ID \* Deployment date: CPOD deployment date (dd/mm/yyyy) \* Deployment time GMT: CPOD deployment time (hh:mm:ss) \* Location ID: CPOD site ID \* Latitude: Latitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* Longitude: Longitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* Depth: Site depth (m) \* Data end date: CPOD data end date (dd/mm/yyyy) \* Data end time GMT: CPOD data end time (hh:mm:ss) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Distance\_yudin\_to\_short\-term\_noise\_recorder\_dpl\_2017\.txt \* NAME: Piling vessel name (Stanislav Yudin) \* Posix: Date and time of the piling vessel interpolated location (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm) \* lat: Latitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* lon: Longitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* 903\_201: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 903 and site ID: 201) \* 905\_202: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 905 and site ID: 202) \* 907\_203: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 907 and site ID: 203) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Distance\_apollo\_to\_short\-term\_noise\_recorder\_dpl\_2019\.txt \* Name: Piling vessel name (Apollo) \* Posix: Date and time of the piling vessel interpolated location (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm) \* lat: Latitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* lon: Longitude (in Decimal Degrees, WGS84) \* 1055\_247: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 1055 and site ID: 247) \* 1056\_248: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 1056 and site ID: 248) \* 1057\_249: Distance between the piling vessel and one of the noise recorders (in km) (deployment ID: 1057 and site ID: 249) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_ST\_2017\-19\_5km\_buffer\_48HRP\_Before\.txt \* Deployment.no: SoundTrap deployment number \* Location: SoundTrap site ID \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* n\_boat: Number of AIS-vessels within a 5 km buffer around the SoundTrap site per hour relative to piling \* n\_AIS\_dot: Number of 5-min interpolated AIS dots within a 5 km buffer around the SoundTrap site per hour relative to piling \* duration\_min: Cumulative vessel duration (min) within a 5 km buffer area around SoundTrap site per hour relative to piling \* min\_dist: Minimum distance (per HRP) between SoundTrap site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that SoundTrap site \* mean\_dist: Mean distance (per HRP) between SoundTrap site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that SoundTrap site \* boat\_density: Number of individual AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* boat\_intensity: Sum of residence times for all AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* PV\_n\_AIS\_dot: Number of the piling vessel interpolated AIS dots within a 5 km buffer around the SoundTrap site per hour relative to piling \* PV\_duration\_min: Cumulative duration (min) of the piling vessel within a 5 km buffer area around SoundTrap site per hour relative to piling \* PV\_min\_dist: Minimum distance (per HRP) between SoundTrap site and the piling vessel passing within a 5 km buffer area around that SoundTrap site \* PV\_mean\_dist: Mean distance (per HRP) between SoundTrap site and the piling vessel passing within a 5 km buffer area around that SoundTrap site \* PV\_intensity: Sum of residence times for the piling vessel per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* OWF: Windfarm ID (i.e. Beatrice, Moray East) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_BBL\_short\-term\_ST\_2017\-19\_HRP\.txt \* Deployment\_no: SoundTrap deployment number \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* Posix.nextmin: Date and time of broadband noise levels recorded (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* broadband\_SPL: Broadband Sound Pressure Levels (dB re 1 μPa) recorded by calibrated SoundTraps \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* piling\_BA: Presence/absence of piling activities \* bout\_interval\_days: Time interval between piling bouts (in days) \* start\_HRP: Start date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* end\_HRP: End date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* dist.ST.turb.km: Distance between the Sountrap and turbine/piling location (in km) \* Location: SoundTrap site ID \_\_\_ \#\# OUTPUT DATASETS \_\_\_ \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Allocating\_HRP\_Before\_piling\_for\_all\_turbines\_BOWL\_2017\.txt \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Allocating\_HRP\_Before\_piling\_for\_all\_turbines\_MEOW\_2019\.txt \* NAME: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID \* start\_bout: Start date and time of each piling bout (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* end\_bout: End date and time of each piling bout (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* n\_bout: number of piling bout for each piling location \* bout\_duration: Piling bout duration (in hours) \* HRP: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* start\_HRP: Start date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* end\_HRP: End date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* interval: Time difference between the end and start of HRP (in hours) \* bout\_interval\_days: Time interval between consecutive piling bouts (in days) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Allocating\_hours\_before\_piling\_bout\_2017\_BOWL\.txt \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_Allocating\_hours\_before\_piling\_bout\_2019\-20\_MEOW\.txt \* Posix: Date and time within each Hour Relative to Piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* turbine: Wind turbine ID \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* piling\_BA: Presence/absence of piling activities \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_BOWL\_time\_of\_arrival\_RUAN\_DPR\.txt \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_MEOW\_time\_of\_arrival\_JackingUp\_DPR\.txt \* Posix: Date and time of the Activity end (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* Location: Piling vessel location \* act.start: Date and time of the Activity start (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* Activity: Activity type ( i.e. Run Anchors at Beatrice, Jacking-up at Moray East) \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* start\_bout: Date and time of the piling bout start (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* time\_of\_arrival: Estimated arrival time of piling vessel (in hours) \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_raw\_data\_HRP\_vessel\_intensity\_GAM\_without\_PV\_some\_locations\_removed\.txt \* Deployment.no: CPOD deployment number \* Location.ID: CPOD site ID \* bout\_12hr: Piling bout ID per piling campaign \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* Turbine\_Before: Wind turbine ID (unique to the windfarm; BE- for Beatrice, ME- for Moray East) \* year: Data collection year (yyyy) \* DPM.hour: Number of minutes within an hour, during which porpoise echolocation clicks were detected \* MinsOn\_hour: Number of minutes logging data per hour \* n: Number of data summarised by site and hour \* prop\_DPH: Proportion of minutes within an hour with porpoise echolocolation clicks logged \* start\_HRP: Start date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* end\_HRP: End date and time of each hour relative of piling (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) \* porp.occ: Presence/Absence of porpoise echocolation clicks per hour \* Depl\_loc: CPOD deployment number and site ID \* n\_boat: Number of AIS-vessels within a 5 km buffer around the CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* n\_AIS\_dot: Number of 5-min interpolated AIS dots within a 5 km buffer around the CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* duration\_min: Cumulative vessel duration (min) within a 5 km buffer area around CPOD site per hour relative to piling \* min\_dist: Minimum distance (per HRP) between CPOD site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that CPOD site \* mean\_dist: Mean distance (per HRP) between CPOD site and AIS vessels passing within a 5 km buffer area around that CPOD site \* boat\_density: Number of individual AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* boat\_intensity: Sum of residence times for all AIS-vessels per kilometer squared per hour relative to piling \* OWF: Windfarm ID (i.e. Beatrice, Moray East) \* dist\_POD\_turb.km: distance between the CPOD deployment site and the turbine/piling location (in km) \* sqrt.boat\_intensity: Squared-root transformation of the vessel intensity metric \#\#\# Benhemma\-Le\_Gall\_MMMP\_pred\_porpoise\_occurrence\_per\_HRP\_without\_PV\_some\_locations\_removed\.txt \* Before\_48h: Hour Relative to Piling (HRP) (between -48 and 0) \* OWF: Windfarm ID (i.e. Beatrice, Moray East) \* fit: Estimated probability of porpoise occurrence per HRP and windfarm \* se: Estimated standard error \* upper: Upper 95% confidence interval \* lower: Lower 95% confidence interval \-\-\-