Energy and marine consultancy ABL has been appointed by Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) to work on a North Sea noise pollution project.
ABL will carry out marine consultancy services to support a scheme aimed at better understanding all the environmental impacts of underwater disturbance from offshore wind and shipping activities.
The DEMASK Project – Development and Evaluation of Noise Management Strategies to keep the North Sea Healthy – will work with marine stakeholders in defining and understanding the environmental impacts of underwater sound.
ABL’s scope of work covers the scenario design for the assessment of various noise mitigation strategies, as well as producing AIS-derived and (where necessary) synthetic vessel data inputs to support subsequent sound propagation modelling.
As part of the initial project implementation, focus groups have been held, where stakeholders have helped define and select the most relevant scenarios.
The DEMASK project has been awarded to ABL’s operations in Germany, based in Hamburg, and follows on from ABL’s collaboration with BSH to assess the navigational risk around identified sites of interest for offshore wind development in the German, Danish and Dutch North Sea.
“With our maritime legacy, covering shipping, ports and harbours, defence, yachts and small craft industries, we are uniquely placed to support this project and to provide the required recommendations to reduce noise pollution for a friendlier and healthier North Sea,” said ABL’s country manager in Germany Tilo Klappenbach (pictured).
The initiative, in support of maritime spatial planning and policy development, includes stakeholders from port authorities, offshore energy, shipping and the policy level.
“Winning the DEMASK scope of work reflects the successful collaboration between ABL Germany and BSH in driving sustainable solutions in both Germany’s energy and marine landscapes,” said marine consultant at ABL in Germany Christoph Grams.
“This is in line with our company’s purpose of driving sustainability in energy and oceans.
“We will support BSH in performing technical analyses to help reduce noise pollution in the German North Sea and beyond.”