Benchmarking Study on the Implementation of the International Maritime Organization’s Underwater Vessel Noise Guidelines
The report presents the results of a study, overseen by WWF Canada, the Chamber of Shipping of America and Transport Canada, investigating the uptake and awareness of the IMO’s 2014 Guidelines for the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping to address adverse impacts on marine life. Based on a small sample size, the study found that there was a general awareness of the 2014 Guidelines among the participants, but that the Guidelines were not being used widely to make changes to ship design to reduce underwater vessel noise. Key barriers to the uptake of the Guidelines were identified as the non-regulatory / non-mandatory nature of the Guidelines, a lack of measurement specification and data demonstrating the impacts of underwater vessel noise, and scepticism about the feasibility of changes.
