Underwater noise course Belfast

November 17-18th in Belfast saw another run of our UW noise course.
We were happy to have participants from Denmark, England, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal and USA. 

On day one we were introduced to a new player in the underwater noise field - the tidal turbines. They are a relatively unknown feature in the underwater soundscape, but as nearby Strangford Lough is a bit of a hotspot for these devices. Two specialists from CASE in Belfast came to show us the current state of the art tidal turbines, some of which they are currently testing.

The remaining of day one was focussed on learning about the issue of underwater noise by approaching the issue from several disciplines. We went over the legislation that largely dictates the content of environmental impact assessments. An introduction to marine fauna followed, with an in-depth look at shortcomings in the current legislation's focus on noise limits that do not alway align with the intent in the legal text or the marine biology.
We do this to facilitate understanding between especially biologists and acousticians. 

In line with the recent move in academia towards a better understanding of the role of particle motion in underwater acoustics, we discussed what impact this has now, and will have on future work in the industry.

The second day was the day of modelling. Everyone got working with dSBea to characterise soundscapes in scenarios that we had prepared or in a site of their choice with their own noise sources.

I want to say a big thank you to the participants contributing with their extensive expertise to the conversation, making it a great learning experience for all of us.

I you want to see some dBSea examples yourself, have a look at dBSea's download page and download dBsea Basic and example scenarios to view them for yourself.

Thank you for reading - if you're interested in our courses e-mail me at: rasmus.pedersen(at)irwincarr.com