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A Lack of Correlation Between Air Gun Signal Pressure Waveforms and Fish Hearing Damage

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The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 730))

Abstract

Offshore marine petroleum seismic surveys involve the repetitive use of intense, short bursts of low-frequency noise, the reflections of which are used to image subsea geology. The seismic signal is produced by a spatial array of sources, usually air guns that violently release high-pressure compressed air into the water column. Although the signal produced by a single air gun is largely omnidirectional at low frequencies (typically, most energy over 10–150 Hz), the signal received by a spatial array of individual air guns is highly directional and dependent on the array configuration and receiver orientation.

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References

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Acknowledgments

Santos Ltd., Adelaide, SA, Australia, supported the fish hearing experiments in the Timor Sea and Woodside Energy Ltd., Perth, WA, Australia, supported the experiments in the Kimberley. Andrew Levings, Horst Fischer, Julie Lloyd, and Alex Beatty supported the Timor Sea field work. Malcolm Perry, Frank Thomas, and Michael Archer supported the Kimberley experiments.

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Correspondence to Robert D. McCauley .

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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McCauley, R.D., Kent, C.S. (2012). A Lack of Correlation Between Air Gun Signal Pressure Waveforms and Fish Hearing Damage. In: Popper, A.N., Hawkins, A. (eds) The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 730. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7311-5_54

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