Underwater noise study of P&A completed in the southern North Sea
From all of us at Subacoustech Environmental, we hope everyone reading this, their friends and family are well.
Following recent government guidelines, like many other companies, we have closed our offices. However, we are very well equipped to continue with most of our normal activities, including modelling, consultancy, data analysis and
quotations. Please continue to get in touch with us by email, phone or our contact form
and we will respond as quickly as possible.
We wish you all the best for the next few weeks and months.
Sam, Tim and the team at Subacoustech Environmental.
SMRU consulting's report on noise abatement systems for marine piling noise, commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage, has been released.
March 2019 saw the publication of new marine mammal exposure criteria from Southall et al. The paper utilises research from the NMFS (2018) study that introduced the weightings and criteria that we and the underwater noise industry currently use. After thoroughly analysing the new report we found that the weightings and criteria presented in Southall’s paper are actually identical to those from NMFS, with a one minor difference; the naming of the marine mammal groupings.
The four main groups that we used from the NMFS paper were low-frequency cetaceans (LF), mid-frequency cetaceans (MF), high-frequency cetaceans (HF), and phocid pinnipeds in water (PW). Southall keeps the same frequency responses but renames these same four groups, respectively, to be low-frequency cetaceans (LF), high-frequency cetaceans (HF), very high-frequency cetaceans (VHF) and phocid carnivores in water (PCW). All of Subacoustech’s upcoming modelling and reporting will utilise the new Southall naming convention for these criteria.
References:
• Southall B L, Finneran J J, Reichmuth C, Nachtigall P E, Ketten D R, Bowles A E, Ellison W T, Nowacek D P, Tyack P L (2019). Marine Mammal Noise Exposure Criteria: Updated Scientific Recommendations for Residual Hearing Effects. Aquatic Mammals 2019, 45(2), 125-232, DOI 10.1578/AM.45.2.2019.125.
• National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (2018). 2018 Revisions to: Technical guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing (Version 2.0): Underwater Thresholds for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts. U.S. Dept. of Commer., NOAA. NOAA Technical Memorandu, NMFS-OPR-59.
Link:
https://www.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1886:mari...
The four main groups that we used from the NMFS paper were low-frequency cetaceans (LF), mid-frequency cetaceans (MF), high-frequency cetaceans (HF), and phocid pinnipeds in water (PW). Southall keeps the same frequency responses but renames these same four groups, respectively, to be low-frequency cetaceans (LF), high-frequency cetaceans (HF), very high-frequency cetaceans (VHF) and phocid carnivores in water (PCW). All of Subacoustech’s upcoming modelling and reporting will utilise the new Southall naming convention for these criteria.
References:
• Southall B L, Finneran J J, Reichmuth C, Nachtigall P E, Ketten D R, Bowles A E, Ellison W T, Nowacek D P, Tyack P L (2019). Marine Mammal Noise Exposure Criteria: Updated Scientific Recommendations for Residual Hearing Effects. Aquatic Mammals 2019, 45(2), 125-232, DOI 10.1578/AM.45.2.2019.125.
• National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (2018). 2018 Revisions to: Technical guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing (Version 2.0): Underwater Thresholds for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts. U.S. Dept. of Commer., NOAA. NOAA Technical Memorandu, NMFS-OPR-59.
Link:
https://www.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1886:mari...
