Underwater Noise From Boats Negatively Impact Marine Environment

Underwater noise from boats can negatively impact the marine environment and vulnerable marine mammals. That is why the Government of Canada is investing. The Government of Canada is investing in new technologies that will help reduce underwater noise from vessels on Canada’s waters.

On the 11th August, the Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, announced more than 3.1 million Canadian dollars will go towards 22 projects. This will help reduce the impact of underwater vessel noise.

Marine environment and vulnerable marine mammals can be negatively affected by underwater noise from boats. The types of species include the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The projects that won the funding includes:

• Workshops to identify safe and practical approaches to reducing underwater noise.
• Developing a tool available to all members of the marine industry to predict and implement effective quiet designs into new vessel builds..
• Developing new, real time tools to track underwater noise released by marine vessels.
• Developing a tool to detect marine mammals and alert nearby vessels.

 “Our government is committed to keeping our marine ecosystems safe, and this investment will help do just that. The Quiet Vessel Initiative will advance new technologies to help reduce the impacts of noise caused by humans on marine mammals. Together with industry and academia, we will continue to take concrete steps to protect our endangered marine mammals and keep our waters safe,” Minister Omar Alghabra said. 

A new era is upon us. We are much more aware of the problems that are caused to the environment from the activities we carry out. Better technology is now being created with the environment in mind. This can only help develop the global shipping industry as we move towards a much more sustainable future.

The Quiet Vessel Initiative was announced on 30th June 2021. Projects funded through the Quiet Vessel Initiative will help generate the technical evidence needed to support Canada’s noise management measures in the Salish Sea and elsewhere in Canada. They will also provide guidance to industry, academia, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to influence future quiet vessel design standards and adoption.