Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Anthropogenic Noise

#MARINE WILDLIFE - Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has recently teamed up with the Technical University of Catalonia in Spain, the Marine Institute and Biospheric Engineering Ltd to begin a project studying ocean noise in Irish waters.

Anthropogenic noise, or noise generated by human effect such as industry, is now recognised as a significant pollutant in the marine environment and there is particular concern of the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine wildlife.

Cetaceans in particular have a highly developed auditory system and use sound actively for orientation, feeding and communication.

As part of this project, an approximate disturbance area for baleen whales will be estimated, helping to fulfil requirements under the EU Habitats Directive for marine mammals.

This work, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency serves to inform management on how to meet requirements under MSFD and provide recommendations on cost-effective monitoring schemes vital for the future protection of our seas.

For more information on ocean noise and this project visit www.monitoringoceannoise.com or contact [email protected]

Published in Marine Wildlife

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.