2025_programme: Assessing the effect of ship and wind farm noise on marine fauna in the EU-funded multi-basin interdisciplinary project BluEcho

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  • Day: June 19, Thursday
      Location / Time: TBA at 15:30 - 16:30
  • Last minutes changes: -
  • Session: Poster session
    Organiser(s): N/A
    Chairperson(s): N/A
  • Lecture: Assessing the effect of ship and wind farm noise on marine fauna in the EU-funded multi-basin interdisciplinary project BluEcho
    Paper ID: 2296
    Author(s): Alice Affatati, Karolin Thomisch, Kate McQueen, Lise Sivle Doksaeter
    Presenter: Alice Affatati
    Abstract: BluEcho is an EU-funded project that plans to assess the impacts of underwater noise from shipping and wind farms on key indicator taxa using a multi-basin interdisciplinary approach. Tolerable and non-tolerable habitats for these taxa will be assessed in the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Polar Oceans. The added value of investigating many sea basins will lead to the creation of an extensive open-access acoustic dataset, which will provide critical data for the design of low-noise MPAs. Building on the protocols advocated by TG Noise for sea state assessment and the results from previous projects, such as JOMOPANS and JONAS, we will assess impacts on selected marine taxa through maps tailored to the sea basins. The TG Noise suggests assessing the threshold as a measure of the impact; it consists of the maximum percentage of habitat where the Level of Onset of Biologically adverse Effects (LOBE) can be exceeded within a specified period. The LOBE is the noise level (expressed as SPL or excess level) at which animals start experiencing adverse effects that could affect their fitness; thus, it is closely correlated with the choice of indicator taxa. The distributional patterns of key taxa will be overlapped with the sound propagation maps to identify key habitats that may be particularly vulnerable to noise disturbance. Data from the literature will be coupled with experimental data recorded in the available observatories (e.g., observatories at a floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea and along a shipping lane in the Norwegian Sea). The results of BluEcho will be publicly shared to raise awareness of noise pollution from vessels and wind farms in marine habitats in society, stakeholder groups, and policy-making entities, as well as enable informed decisions on efficient mitigation and management strategies.
  • Corresponding author: Ms Alice Affatati
    Affiliation: National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS & University of Trieste
    Country: Italy

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