Marine Seismic Survey Impacts on Fish and Invertebrates: A Critical Literature Review

Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with Curtin University and CSIRO, provides an updated critical review synthesizing scientific studies on the potential impacts of marine seismic surveys. The document, published via the Australian Ocean Data Network, summarizes evidence from 70 peer-reviewed studies and more recent research on the effects of impulsive low-frequency sound. It addresses research gaps and recommends measures for advancing the scientific evidence base to inform environmental management.

Use Cases

• Informing environmental impact assessments based on the synthesis of scientific evidence on underwater noise.
• Guiding multidisciplinary research design based on identified gaps in species coverage and ecosystem-scale impacts.
• Developing standards for sound exposure measurement based on the review's recommendations for terminology and quantification.
• Modeling population and ecosystem consequences of seismic activity based on the described need for broader impact studies.

Strengths

• Synthesizes findings from 70 peer-reviewed scientific studies, providing a substantial evidence base.
• Collaboratively produced by Geoscience Australia, Curtin University, and CSIRO, indicating authoritative input.
• Explicitly addresses research gaps and provides five concrete recommendations for future work.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The data is presented as a PDF document, which may limit direct computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Curtin University, CSIRO

Collection Method

Critical synthesis and literature review of published scientific studies.

Time Range

Covers studies up to the publication date of the review and its 2026 update.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 23:22:53.907533; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Focus is on evidence relevant to the Australian marine environment, though the review includes international studies.