PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Maritime traffic, for trade and tourism, has greatly developed in the past 100 years leading to a continuous and tremendous augmentation of underwater noise. Over the last six decades, background noise levels have doubled every decade, mainly because of shipping, with an increase of 20 dB in 50 years in some areas that corresponds to a 100-fold increase in acoustic pressure. Such noise levels negatively affect marine life, both at the level of a single individual but also at the level of the whole population dynamics. Even though the effects of underwater noise are not fully understood for all species, they are multiple and complex. Animals could be driven out of important feeding or breeding areas, have a reduced ability to detect food and, if hearing is damaged, could have limited communication capacities that impact reproductive behaviour. And these effects, as opposed to other types of pollution, can be widespread, since sound can travel in water over dozens of kilometres.
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive, aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of the EU's marine waters by 2020 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. Descriptor 11 of the GES (Introduction of energy, including underwater noise, is at levels that do not adversely affect the marine environment) defines two indicators to measure noise.
The introduction of the MSFD led to a number of initiatives to address issues identified. Among the initiatives, the FP7 AQUO project, led by Naval Group, delivered a series of technical, operational and regulatory recommendations to reduce individual vessel noise and the cumulative resultant of noise from the world fleet.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE-PIAQUO project objectives are to develop and test different tools to reduce underwater noise pollution and their impacts on Mediterranean aquatic biodiversity. It is structured around five goals (below), the first two target the shipping industry while the other three concern public stakeholders such as governments, harbours and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
1- Optimisation of propellers to limit cavitation, the main origin of ship underwater radiated noise (URN). 2- Test on-board of a large ferry an URN measuring system, for the vessel captain to be aware of the URN level on a real-time basis and for instance be able to adapt the speed of the vessel in vulnerable areas. 3- Support harbour authorities and MPA managers to induce virtuous practices. The objective is to provide a map of emission levels in a wide area, thanks to buoys with sensors, which will be used by authorities to test incentives for ship owners to reduce underwater noise. 4- The adaptation of the maritime traffic according to the real-time state of marine ecosystems. In two MPAs and the Pelagos sanctuary, soniferous species, most sensitive to noise pollution, will be located and their vital functions (breeding, feeding) monitored, while voluntary mitigation seasonal measures will be implemented by the MPAs and Palagos managers, incentivising vessels to adopt URN reduction practices (ship speed reduction, no-shipping area, etc.). 5- Establish a broadcasting service to inform vessel captains, ship management offices and public entities on individual impact on the ecosystem and support decision-making to mitigate URN.
RESULTS
Expected results: In connection to each of the goals above, the project is aiming at the following results:
1- reduction of 50 to 100% of the cavitation volume, which should result in a reduction of URN by an order of 5 to 15 dB (representing a 3 to 33-fold reduction of the acoustic energy dispersed). In parallel the optimisation should generate a fuel economy saving of 1 to 3%; 2- the project targets an accuracy of the estimation of the ships noise of +/- 6 dB. On the large ferry where it will be tested, partners expect an average speed reduction of 10%, resulting in 10dB reduction of URN and a decrease up to 20% on fuel consumption; 3- record the vessel acoustic signatures of 500 vessels (10% of the vessels that cruise in the area of the Pelagos sanctuary). At least 100 vessels will receive their Noise Ship Index scores and at least one harbour will set up incentives; 4- thanks to MPAs voluntary mitigation policies, a reduction of ambient noise of 10 dB is targeted; and 5- provide a 24/7 online broadcasting system that delivers acoustic and biological mapping and information (live, historical and predictive) with the related business model.
