In the Arctic, amplified climate change enables increased human activity, adding to sounds in the ocean.
The Northwest Passage is one of the two shipping routes in the Arctic Ocean and it passes near Cambridge Bay (Canada). Dr Philippe Blondel has analysed 10 years of acoustic, weather and ice measurements, comparing winter (full ice cover, no shipping) and summer (little to no ice cover, shipping). This has identified contributions from shipping and unexpected activities from snowmobiles, low-flying aircraft and vessels without satellite transponders to polar underwater noise.
The key results from the analyse are:
The frequency bands used by international regulations are not adapted to polar environments. Sounds are often louder when there is no shipping (but a full ice cover) than when ships are present. Year-to-year variations do not show any particular trend, in particular from climate change effects. We recommend using bands at higher frequencies too.
Large ships (satellite-tracked) are few in numbers but acoustic measurements reveal much larger numbers of small vessels (with no transponder capability). In winter, the sounds from ships are replaced with the sounds from snowmobiles and ATVs. In both seasons, aircraft contribute to the underwater soundscapes, along with the sounds of machinery (either off- or near-shore). The acoustic impacts to consider must therefore include a large variety of sources, depending on seasons.
Satellite-tracking only works for the larger vessels but underwater sound measurements identify many other vessels. Actual measurements are more accurate than models to understand baseline sound levels and their changes with seasons and with climate change.
These results have been published in npj Acoustics, and serve as evidence to regulate the impacts of human sounds in polar regions, adapting existing regulations like the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive or forming the base of bespoke new international guidelines for polar regions.
Read the journal publication
Philippe Blondel, Rhys Belcher & Dylan Cooper
Marine soundscapes of the Arctic and human impacts: going beyond the “shipping bands”
npj Acoustics volume 2, Article number: 3 (2026)
The two co-authors (Rhys Belcher and Dylann Cooper) were MPhys students in 2024/25 and the acoustic measurements were part of their final-year research project, supervised by lead author Philippe Blondel.