A review of the impact of seismic survey noise on Narwhal & other Arctic Cetaceans / : Review of the impact of seismic survey noise on Narwhal and other Arctic Cetaceans

If seismic noise and the entrapment are indeed correlated, the fact that the seismic surveys ceased a month before the ice entrapment occurred demonstrates the far reaching impacts seismic surveys can have on the species and habitat both temporarily and spatially. [...] The echo of the airgun refracting off the seabed provides data on the bathymetry and density of the seabed, which helps locate oil and gas deposits. [...] This is because different reference intensities are used to compute sound levels in dB and because the intensity of a sound wave depends not only on the pressure of the wave, but also on the density and sound speed of the medium through which the sound is traveling. [...] Sounds in water and sounds in air that have the same pressures have very different intensities because the density of water is much greater than the density of air and because the speed of sound in water is much greater than the speed of sound in air. [...] The bay is a unique and sensitive ecosystem with much of the aquatic life of the bay concentrated near the North Water.