Public Reports & Articles
Browse to North West Shelf Project—Vessel Noise
July 2022 — Western Australia
Client: Woodside Energy
• Acoustic Modelling Phase 2 Report
In support of Woodside’s Supplement Report to the Draft Environment Impact Statement, JASCO performed two modelling studies of underwater noise related to Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) and Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) operations to determine ranges to acoustic exposure thresholds for marine mammals, turtles, and fish. The third study employed animal movement (animat) modelling simulations to predict the range at which pygmy blue whales could be expected to be exposed above threshold criteria for permanent threshold shift (PTS), temporary threshold shift (TTS) and behavioural response.
Towards a Standard for Vessel URN Measurement in Shallow Water
2021-2022 — Canada
Client: Transport Canada Innovation Centre
2022: Final Report on Transport Canada Innovation Centre Project MMP2
Measuring vessel source levels (SL) in a repeatable way is more difficult in shallow than in deep water. This field experiment evaluates several methods and confirms that obtaining repeatable vessel SL estimates in shallow water is possible and that the methods required are only moderately more complex than those codified for deep water.
A white paper that informed the experimental design for the 2022 report.
Doing Business on Mighty Waters - Uncrewed
May 2022
In: ECO Magazine, Marine Mammals special issue
“JASCO Applied Sciences and Open Ocean Robotics are changing how we go down to the sea. … The combination of marine robots and intelligent underwater acoustic systems to protect ocean fauna is only in its infancy, yet it shows considerable promise to mitigate impact, reduce monitoring costs and keep humans out of harm’s way. OOR and JASCO are helping transform science-fiction into reality and are helping define the way marine mammal monitoring will be done in the future.”
Contributed by JASCO’s John Moloney and Open Ocean Robotics’ Julie Angus
Underwater Acoustic Modeling of Detonations of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) for Orsted Wind Farm Construction, US East Coast
May 2022 — East Coast, United States
Client: Ørsted
Modelling of acoustic sources and sound propagation to estimate Level-A and Level-B take zones for expected UXO types that may be encountered along export cable routes during wind farm construction. This assessment considers acoustic effects to marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish from five possible charge sizes at sites with four water depths near Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project areas. The results are also relevant for sites with similar water depths at Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project, Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project, and possibly other wind farm sites with similar properties.
Sunrise Wind Farm Project: Underwater Noise and Exposure Modelling
April 2022 — Outer Continental Shelf, United States
Client: Sunrise Wind LLC (Ørsted and Eversource)
April 2022 — Outer Continental Shelf, United States
Client: Sunrise Wind LLC (Ørsted and Eversource)
JASCO modelled the potential underwater acoustic impacts resulting from pile driving for installing tapered monopiles, pin piles for jacket foundations, casing pipes, and goal post sheet piles for the construction of the 924 MW Sunrise Wind Farm and associated Export Cable. This underwater noise assessment estimates the number of marine mammals and sea turtles that may experience sound levels that exceed regulatory thresholds and calculates exposure ranges. For fish, ranges to regulatory sound thresholds for injury and behavioral disturbance were calculated.
Hywind Scotland Floating Offshore Wind Farm: Sound Source Characterisation of Operational Floating Turbines
March 2022 — Scotland
Client: Equinor Energy AS
Sound measurements and analysis for the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. Located in the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, Hywind Scotland comprises five floating wind turbines, each sitting atop a spar buoy that is moored to the seabed. JASCO measured the underwater sound from one turbine for three months using a four-hydrophone tetrahedral array to allow bearing discrimination between sounds from different directions. The sound signature of the turbine was fully characterized, consisting mainly of low-frequency tonal noise associated with rotating rotor and generator components. In addition, the sources of more broadband transient mooring noises were localized.
Viva Energy Gas Terminal Project EES Technical Report A2
March 2022 — Southeast Australia
Client: AECOM
Appendix A-1 – Baseline Monitoring of Ambient Underwater Noise Environment
Appendix A-2 – Underwater Noise Modelling
Appendix A-3 – Underwater Noise Impact Assessment
Three underwater noise studies that form part of the Environment Effects Statement for the Viva Energy Gas Terminal Project in southeastern Australia. The project will develop a gas terminal using a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) moored at Refinery Pier in Corio Bay, Geelong to facilitate supply of a new source of gas for the south-east Australian gas market where there is a projected supply shortfall in coming years.
Evaluation of ECHO Vessel Noise Correlation Models with a Novel Dataset Collected in the Santa Barbara Channel
January 2022 — California, United States
Client: Vancouver Fraser Port Authority ECHO Program
January 2022 — California, United States
Client: Vancouver Fraser Port Authority ECHO Program
An assessment of the predictive fit of the vessel noise functional regression model developed by JASCO and ERM on an independent database of vessel noise levels measured in the Santa Barbara Channel. The regression model was developed using the ECHO source level database, which comprises thousands of vessel transits recorded in Haro Strait, Strait of Georgia, and Boundary Pass. The models were able to predict monopole source levels well on the vessel category level.
A collaboration with Scripps Machine Listening Lab and ERM Consultants Canada Ltd.