13 Aug 2024

As the international shipping industry continues to explore measures to conserve and protect underwater life, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is proposing the future monitoring of Underwater Radiated Noise (URN), which may lead to the establishment of thresholds combined with long-term monitoring requirements for certain regions. Far reaching impacts Underwater noise from ships can significantly […]

04 Jun 2024

Work has begun on a collaborative marine research project aimed at identifying design innovations and best practice in monitoring and mitigating underwater noise associated with floating offshore wind developments. Experts from the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOW CoE) will work alongside project partners Equinor, JASCO Applied Sciences, Scottish Association for Marine Science […]

09 May 2017

Seals are being temporarily deafened by underwater noise in the UK’s busy shipping lanes Researchers compared the experience of the seals to that of people living amid the din of inner cities. Dr Esther Jones, an ecologist from the University of St Andrews, said: “Like humans living in busy, noisy cities, some seals live in […]

28 Nov 2016

A call for underwater noise assessment guidance Elena San Martin, ABPmer: ‘Human activity in or near to the aquatic environment can generate underwater sound potentially affecting fauna in a number of ways. These range from masking biologically relevant signals, evoking behavioural responses and causing hearing damage resulting in physical injury or even death at very […]

14 Nov 2016

Fishing Focus The last Fishing Focus came out in May before the EU referendum. Reading this you might be forgiven for wondering whether it took place at all. It is well worth going through this Fishing Focus in detail because it highlights a range of items from the UK’s position on deep sea fishing to […]

17 Oct 2016

According to a report published today, measures to cut down underwater noise could reduce the negative impact that offshore wind power development has on harbour porpoise populations in UK waters. The research, conducted by SMRU Consulting exclusively for WWF-UK, used noise reduction scenarios to identify the benefits of reducing noise by set amounts, against a baseline […]