Marine traffic is the most pervasive underwater anthropogenic noise pollution which can mask acoustic communication in marine mammals and fish, but its effect in marine invertebrates remains unknown. Here, we performed an at sea experiment to study the potential of shipping noise to mask and alter lobster acoustic communication. We used hydrophones to record buzzing sounds and accelerometers to detect lobster carapace vibrations (i.e. the buzzing sounds' sources). We demonstrated that male individuals produced carapace vibrations under various ambient noise conditions, including heavy shipping noise. However, while the associated waterborne buzzing sounds could be recorded under natural ambient noise levels, they were masked by shipping noise. Additionally, lobsters significantly increased their call rates in presence of shipping noise, suggesting a vocal compensation due to the reduction of intraspecific communication. This study reports for the first time the potential acoustic masking of lobster acoustic communication by chronic anthropogenic noise pollution, which could affect ecologically important behaviors.

海洋交通是最普遍的水下人为噪声污染，它可以掩盖海洋哺乳动物和鱼类的声音交流，但其对海洋无脊椎动物的影响仍然未知。在这里，我们进行了一项海上实验，以研究航运噪音掩盖和改变龙虾声学通信的潜力。我们使用水听器记录嗡嗡声，使用加速度计检测龙虾壳的振动（即嗡嗡声的来源）。我们证明雄性个体在各种环境噪声条件下产生甲壳振动，包括沉重的运输噪声。然而，虽然可以在自然环境噪音水平下记录相关的水性嗡嗡声，但它们被运输噪音掩盖了。此外，龙虾在运输噪音的情况下显着提高了呼叫率，由于种内交流的减少，建议进行声音补偿。本研究首次报告了由慢性人为噪声污染对龙虾声学通信的潜在声学掩蔽，这可能影响重要的生态行为。