Van Oord and Scottish outfit Ace Aquatec are working together to make an acoustic device to protect marine fauna during offshore construction available to all contractors and interested parties around the world.
The so-called FaunaGuard has currently only been used by Van Oord on a few offshore projects, including the 600MW Gemini wind farm off the Dutch coast.
Van Oord said the device can be used during all offshore activities, such as rock installation, piling, drilling, blasting and dredging operations to safely and temporarily deter marine fauna species.
A porpoise module will be the first to be made commercially available, with other modules to follow in the coming months and years, it added.
Van Oord lead engineer Erik van Eekelen said: “The strategic partnership with Ace Aquatec is consistent with our mission to create world class innovative and sustainable solutions.
“At Van Oord we want to ensure that our inhouse innovations are made available to the rest of the world.”
Ace Aquatec managing director Nathan Pyne–Carter said: “This partnership brings together the complimentary expertise of two innovation leaders in their field, and our systems and environmentally responsible ethos make this a win both for our businesses and for the environment.
“We look forward to supporting this exciting industry with our advanced systems which conjoin the technical expertise of Ace Aquatec with the experience and sounds that Van Oord has developed in their FaunaGuard innovation.”