ISO Standard To Protect Marine Environment

ISO Standard to Quantify Manmade Noise at Sea Manmade noise in sea lanes and in other waterways has long been suspected as a cause of whale and dolphin mass beachings. Now, that noise is going to be quantified to help protect the marine environment—and an ISO standard is an important component of that effort.

The new standard—ISO/PAS 17208-1:2012 (Acoustics—Quantities and procedures for description and measurement of underwater sound from ships—Part 1: General requirements for measurements in deep water)—is useful in a variety of ways, including showing compliance with contract requirements, and enabling regular signature assessments in research and development.

Though ISO/PAS 17208 will not impact the more common international standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 and the training associated with them (for instance, ISO 9001 training and ISO 27001 training), its publication testifies to the near-universal presence of and need for ISO standards in the modern world.

ISO has a put together a subcommittee, SC 3 (under technical committee ISO/TC 43, which is devoted to underwater acoustics), to design appropriate standards for the generation, transmission, and reception of underwater sound.

“Governments, industry, environmental organizations as well as concerned scientists and engineers are struggling to understand the impacts that this noise may have on marine ecology, marine animals, oceanographic research, underwater biological and anthropogenic acoustic communications, and underwater surveillance of major waterways and ports for protection from potentially catastrophic natural and/or terrorist events,” says Dr. George Frisk, the SC 3 chairman. “These efforts have revealed that there is a need to standardize the methods of measurement and assessment of underwater sound generated by various sources, as well as its propagation and reception by transducers and biological organisms.”

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