Mitigating underwater noise and vessel-strikes in the Southwest Indian Ocean– Project QWIO

Anthropogenic underwater noise and vessel strikes are among the most significant stressors in the global oceans and affect a wide range of marine species. The Wildlife Conservation Society has implemented several focused projects to improve the scientific assessment of these threats and to identify practical management and conservation solutions. These projects include work to understand the consequences of increased shipping though the Bering Strait and Northwest Passage, the installation of real time acoustic beacons to monitor threatened whales in the approaches to New York harbour and around offshore renewable energy sites and most recently, the Quieter Western Indian Ocean Project (QWIO) which focuses on the Mozambique Channel and the Mascarene Islands. QWIO seeks to improve the availability of data on vessel noise and vessel strikes in the Southwest Indian Ocean, and to identify suitable management interventions. The project comprises a diverse partnership of regional and international NGOs, universities and companies, including national regulatory bodies and the private sector. The economic development plans of the countries of the Nairobi Convention region place particular emphasis on increasing port capacity and maritime trade as part of plans to develop their blue economies. This will increase the levels of transport and maritime services and without appropriate management will also increase the scale of threats they entrain. Busy shipping lanes already run either side of La Réunion and Mauritius and through the Mozambique Channel, and the level of traffic using each is rapidly growing, including in response to attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden. Work conducted within QWIO includes the development of regional underwater soundscape maps, the modelling of species distribution using existing and new data, in-situ acoustic measurements and large-scale assessments of vessel strike risk. These are being used to identify areas where risks for focal species are high, and to identify opportunities for management. The project is implementing a management toolbox, named OceanPlanner, that will help regional managers to assess the benefits and costs of proposed ship management measures and to improve the selection of candidate options. This includes detailed assessment of the costs and benefits of the any navigational changes, including CO2 emissions as well as the anticipated reductions in noise exposure and vessel strike risk.  The work being conducted within QWIO will enable states to meet commitments under the Nairobi Convention and to support the implementation of other measures proposed by the International Maritime Organisation and the Convention on Biodiversity for the reduction of underwater noise and vessel strikes. This presentation will provide explicit examples of the work being undertaken and the tangible results being generated, including explicit examples of candidate management measures for areas of identified risk for focal species.