Quantifying marine traffic intensity in Northwest Greenland and the potential disturbance of two seabird colonies

Marine traffic poses a growing threat to wildlife in the marine environment, including Arctic seabirds, which are exposed to high vessel densities when breeding in coastal areas. However, little is known about the magnitude of the problem. Here, we utilized underwater acoustic monitoring to quantify marine traffic and above-water disturbances at two thick-billed murre colonies in Greenland in 2016. We detected a total of 307 vessels, and only 4 % was known from automatic monitoring systems. Based on proximity, noise emission, and boating behavior, we classified 11 vessels as disturbing and an additional 12 as potentially disturbing for the seabirds. One colony facing population decline was located closest to the main boating route and experienced 2–5 times more disturbances than the other (increasing) colony, suggesting a negative impact of marine traffic. Our study shows that underwater acoustics can be a useful method to quantify above-water disturbances of seabird colonies. •Marine traffic in the coastal areas can be a problem for seabird colonies.•Automatic vessel monitoring systems (AIS or VMS) underestimates marine traffic.•Underwater acoustics is useful to quantify vessel activity around seabird colonies.•In this study, 96 % of the vessels went undetected by AIS and VMS systems.•Proximity of seabird colonies to boating routes may predict disturbance levels.