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Vessel receives first quiet ship recognition

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A merchant vessel has received the first ever underwater environmental noise emissions notation from an international vessel certification organization. The newly built Onex Peace, an Aframax class crude oil tanker built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and delivered to Onex, received DNV’s first SILENT-E notation on its class registration, making it the world’s first commercial vessel to receive this type of notation. The notation is part of a larger effort to encourage ship owners and builders to lower the ecological footprint of their vessels.

Sound propagates much farther underwater than it does in air, so noise from merchant shipping fills large areas of the world’s oceans. Because of the dominance of sound as an essential cue below the water surface, marine animals have evolved to use hearing as their primary sense. These animals rely strongly on quiet ocean habitats. Most dolphin and porpoise species also use high frequency sounds for echolocation during foraging, and high frequency sounds from nearby shipping can interfere with that ability.

As awareness of the importance of quiet oceans grows within the shipping industry, industry groups are initiating projects to reduce underwater noise generated by ships. Recently, the Port of Vancouver implemented port fee reductions for berthing ships with quiet notations, including DNV’s SILENT-E, through their EcoAction program. Such measures incentivize ship owners and builders to obtain quiet certifications.

JASCO Applied Sciences, together with Port of Vancouver, are leading a collaborative effort involving most of the world’s environmental ship certification societies, including DNV, to standardize and align their quiet ship notations for commercial vessels. The JASCO-operated Boundary Pass Underwater Listening Station, deployed beneath the shipping lanes leading to and from the Port of Vancouver, measures the noise signature of every passing commercial vessel. Ship noise data from this system are being used as an important reference for the standardization project.

“The Onex Peace receiving the SILENT-E notation is a landmark achievement, showing that large commercial vessels can reduce their environmental noise emissions. JASCO’s ongoing work in supporting the shipping industry and certification societies to standardize and align noise emissions notations will ensure such certifications will be consistent, trustworthy, and rigorous. These collaborations will reduce shipping noise globally to ensure healthy, quieter environments for marine life.”
— David Hannay, JASCO's Chief Science Officer
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