Long-term measurements of ambient sounds in Cambridge Bay (Canada), 2015-2024-Implications for extending the MSFD to Arctic waters

Climate change in the Arctic enables increased access to human activities, affecting underwater soundscapes. It is therefore important to have complete guidelines to monitor impacts on natural environments. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive is the most complete, strongly inspiring emerging guidelines in other countries. Primary descriptor D11C2 addresses continuous low-frequency sounds and makes extensive use of third-octave “shipping bands” at 63 and 125 Hz. To address the lack of measurements, models often use ship tracks recorded by their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). But not all ships in the Arctic use AIS, and winter ice also allows human activities other than shipping. We use sound measurements by Ocean Networks Canada in Cambridge Bay (Nunavut) between 2015 and 2024, focusing on the months of May (full ice cover, no shipping) and August (little to no ice, shipping activity). We show impacts beyond the “shipping bands”. Baseline soundscapes vary with ice cover and AIS underestimates impactful activities of all types. Our results show that future guidelines will need adapting to the Arctic environments to fully measure the range of human impacts.