Perth Canyon Marine Soundscape with Acoustic, Weather, and Ship Traffic Data

Passive acoustic data from the Perth Canyon submarine canyon off Western Australia, correlated with weather and ship traffic data. The dataset characterizes the marine soundscape between 5 and 3000 Hz, quantifying contributions from geophony, biophony, and anthrophony. It was collected by Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and published by Parks Australia.

Use Cases

• Monitor seasonal whale visitation and relative densities based on low (15–100 Hz) and mid-frequency (200–400 Hz) acoustic signatures.
• Assess anthropogenic noise impact from ship traffic based on contributions to the 8–100 Hz frequency band.
• Study diurnal and seasonal patterns of fish or invertebrate choruses based on high-frequency (1800–2500 Hz) nighttime signals.
• Correlate underwater acoustic noise with wind and rain events based on signals at 200–3000 Hz and 2000–3000 Hz respectively.

Strengths

• Data correlates acoustic measurements with weather and ship traffic data from multiple sources (IMOS, Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Maritime Safety Authority).
• Description provides specific frequency bands for biological (15-400 Hz, 1800-2500 Hz), anthropogenic (8-100 Hz), and environmental (200-3000 Hz) sound sources.
• Research is focused on a specific, ecologically important location: the Perth Canyon, a known feeding and resting ground for great whales.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in HTML format, which is atypical for structured acoustic data and may require conversion.

Provenance

Source

Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), published by Parks Australia.

Collection Method

Data from acoustic moorings correlated with nearby weather station data and ship traffic data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-15 02:17:18.514534; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Perth Canyon, off Rottnest Island, Western Australia.