Joint Monitoring Program for Ambient Noise in the North Sea

A joint transnational monitoring program for ambient noise in the North Sea has been developed by the Jomopans project (Joint Monitoring Program for Ambient Noise in the North Sea). Validated soundscape maps were produced that quantified the ambient sound in the North Sea. From these maps, the underwater noise can be assessed and they are valuable information to develop measures to improve the quality of the environment, required by the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Jomopans developed soundscape maps for the North Sea based on acoustic modeling of the sound produced by ships and wind. The spatial and temporal exceedance of ship noise over wind noise is assessed through so-called Dominance maps. In total 15 measurement stations around the North Sea were employed and gathered long-term sound data. These data were used to validate the soundscape maps. Following that approach, it was found that shipping noise dominates the underwater soundscape of the North Sea. In the southern part and along the major shipping routes, the shipping noise exceeds the broadband natural sound by more than 20 dB for more than 50% of the time.