6 Standards and references
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Circulars - Marine Environment Protection Committee - MEPC.1/Circular.833 – Guidelines for the Reduction Of Underwater Noise From Commercial Shipping to Address Adverse Impacts on Marine Life – (07 April 2014) - Annex – Guidelines for the Reduction Of Underwater Noise From Commercial Shipping to Address Adverse Impacts on Marine Life - 6 Standards and references

6 Standards and references

  6.1 Underwater noise should be measured to an objective standard for any meaningful improvements.

  • .1 The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed the (ISO/PAS) 17208-1 – Acoustics – Quantities and procedures for description and measurement of underwater sound from ships – Part 1: General requirements for measurements in deep water. This measurement standard is for deep water which implies that the water depth should be larger than 150 m or 1.5 times overall ship length (engineering method), whichever is greater. This is a temporary publicly available standard. This standard is based on the American National Standards Institute and the Acoustical Society of America (ANSI/ASA) S12.64-2009 "Quantities and Procedures for Description and Measurement of Underwater Sound from Ships, Part 1: General Requirements".

  • .2 ISO is also developing ISO/DIS 16554 – Ship and marine technology – Measurement and reporting of underwater sound radiated from merchant ships – deep-water measurement, which is expected to be published in 2013. The standard would provide shipyards, shipowners and ship surveyors with a well-established measurement method for underwater sound radiated from merchant ships for use at the final delivery stage of ships.

  6.2 Several research ships have been designed using the noise specification proposed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Cooperative Research Report No.209 (CRR 209). It should be noted that the ICES CRR 209 noise specification was designed for fishery research ships so that marine life would not be startled during biomass surveys; it was not intended to be used as a commercial ship design standard to prevent potential harm of marine life. However, certain design arrangements used to meet ICES CRR 209 may still be useful for new commercial ships to reduce underwater noise.

  6.3 Other underwater noise rating criteria are available and may prove useful as guidance.

Parent topic: Annex – Guidelines for the Reduction Of Underwater Noise From Commercial Shipping to Address Adverse Impacts on Marine Life
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