International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Red Sea is one of the most important repositories of the marine biodiversity in the world. Red Sea oil and gas reserves are estimated to be around 100 billion barrel of oil equivalent necistate the use of offshore structure to extract it. Most of offshore drilling rigs and production platforms are found on group of large diameter piles which are driving into sea bed producing high amount of underwater noise. Underwater noise emitted during pile construction can mask biologically relevant signals for marine mammals. This noise might lead to behavioral reactions, harassment, and at very high levels can injure or even kill the mammal. Range-dependent Acoustic Model, Rogers Model, was used to assess underwater noise propagation of offshore pile driving taking into account seabed bathymetry, temperature, and salinity. It was found that an offshore pile driven with 235 kJ rated energy diesel hammer can cause behavioral disturbance to the marine mammal within a distance of 1000 m from the pile location; temporary threshold shift within a distance of 30 m; permanent threshold shift within a distance of 50 m; and injury, or even death, within a distance of 20 m.

Index Terms—Red sea marine mammals, pile driving noise, underwater noise propagation, threshold levels, rogers model.

W. A. Dawoud is with Environmental Engineering Department, School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), New Borg Al-Arab City, Postal Code 21934, Alexandria, Egypt (e-mail: walid.dawoud@ejust.edu.eg).
A. M. Negm is with Environmental Engineering Department, School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, E-JUST, Seconded from Zagazig University, Egypt (e-mail: negm@ejust.edu.eg, amnegm85@yahoo.com).
N. M. Saleh is with Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, Egypt (e-mail: na_sa_64@hotmail.com).
M. F. Bady is with Environmental Engineering Department, School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, E-JUST, Seconded from Assiut University, Egypt (e-mail: mahmoud.bady@ejust.edu.eg).

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Cite: Waled A. Dawoud, Abdelazim M. Negm, Nasser M. Saleh, and Mahmoud F. Bady, "Impact Assessment of Offshore Pile Driving Noise on Red Sea Marine Mammals," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 10-15, 2016.