Analyse des risques pour les mammifères marins liés à l'emploi des méthodes acoustiques en océanographie

The use of acoustical systems in various human activities in the ocean (industry, defence, science) raises the issue of their impact upon marine mammals populations. Several serious accidents linked to the use of naval sonars led the military, industrial and scientific communities to investigate the potential dangers of their own activity. This report aims at identifying the risks for the cetaceans linked to the use of acoustic and seismic systems currently used for oceanographic science. The analysis proposed here stays within the frame of bibliography synthesis and elementary modelling, and brings no new scientific elements on the topic. An overview of the status of cetacean populations is given first, with a summary of the possible acoustical threats. Risks are classified and described, insisting on the cases of massive stranding events. The present status of knowledge about auditory characteristics of cetaceans is summarised, and the definition of an objective threshold for acoustical risk is discussed ; the usually-admitted values are finally retained, despite of their evident limitations. The report presents also the emission characteristics of the various acoustic and seismic systems used in oceanographic, emphasising the ones operated by Ifremer; for the potentially harmful ones (according to the currently-used criteria) a model is proposed for the radiated acoustical intensity field, giving the extent of risk areas. This analysis concludes to the harmlessness of most systems, excepted heavy seismics and at a lesser degree low-frequency multibeam echosounders. Finally a variety of possible mitigation measures are presented and discussed; the regulations imposed by some countries are detailed. The report finally recommends both short-term measures aimed at limiting the potential risks, and longer-term actions for participating in the general effort of scientific and technological research in this field.