Motorboat sound in shallow waters and implications for mitigation
Small motorboats are a pervasive source of underwater noise pollution in many coastal regions of the world. The environmental impacts of motorboat noise include marine life disturbances and ecosystem disruptions. Mitigation strategies may involve speed restrictions in certain areas, on the assumption that slower speeds correspond to lower acoustic energy. We investigate the acoustic footprint of small motorboats navigating at different speeds in shallow water. Sound pressure and particle motion are characterized and the source levels estimated. We find that the acoustic energy (source level) associated with small motorboat noise may be higher at low speed than high speed. Our study therefore suggests that the vessel's optimal cruising speed should be considered while implementing speed limitation as a mitigation strategy.
Authors
- Michael A. Ainslie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0565-3559)
- Harry R. Harding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2511-3653)
- James Campbell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6150-0821)
- Stephen D. Simpson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4856-6164)
- Sophie L. Nedelec (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6382-9615)
- Andrew N. Radford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5470-3463)
- Lucille Chapuis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3001-983X)
Institutions
- Continental (Germany) (DE)
- La Trobe University (AU)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
- Published
- 2025-10-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0039578
- Primary Topic
- Marine animal studies overview
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Natural Environment Research Council