The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/653412
www.sea-technology.com March 2016 / st 27 ments happening underwater, such as the effciency of seal scarers or the de- tection of mammal presence. Conclusion One of the key benefts of real-time noise monitoring is the ability to ef- fectively use the received feedback as a mitigation tool. This means that the operator on board a piling vessel can view the noise levels that are being recorded a certain distance away in real time and adjust the piling strategy as necessary. For instance, the opera- tor can decrease the piling energy to remain below certain noise levels, or increase the energy to minimize the time needed to drive the pile into the substrate if current noise levels are low. Optimizing the piling strategy with live feedback from the noise measurements can achieve signifcant cost savings. Receiving live feedback on noise emissions can aid the quick identifca- tion of potential faults in the mitigation equipment. This can allow the operator to determine if acoustic deterrent de- vices (such as a seal scarers) are still active during installation when they should have been switched off, or if a mitigation tool is not performing as ex- pected. For instance, bubble curtains are often used to reduce underwater noise propagating away from the noise source into the surrounding water. Real-time noise monitoring can detect anomalies in their performance that could indicate issues such as a lack of airfow within the bubble curtain. Furthermore, real-time noise mon- itoring buoys can be used to monitor the surrounding area for the pres- ence or absence of target species, such as harbor porpoises, which are a protected species throughout the EU. This is benefcial because, while some EU governments have imposed strict thresholds on noise emissions, others require monitoring to be con- ducted to determine whether marine mammals are present within a certain area during operations. If they are, then mitigation measures must be used to minimize the disturbance of marine mammals. ST (Top) The real-time noise-monitoring interface gathering data on sound pressure levels, sound exposure levels, third-octave bands, and RB-SDA14 gen- eral status. (Bottom) Preparation of the hydrophone mooring line for the RB- SDA14 for the Gode Wind farm. Luc Simon is the RTsys international projects man- ager. He has worked on the technical and business development of RTsys passive acoustic systems. Si- mon holds an undergraduate degree in embedded electronics and a master's degree in international business development. info@edgetech.com USA 1.508.291.0057 Clearly Superior Imaging SONAR SYSTEMS SUB-BOTTOM PROFILERS BATHYMETRY SYSTEMS SIDE SCAN SONARS