The EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) lists input of energy including underwater noise as descriptor 11 in its list of Descriptors, which can be used to describe what the marine environment will look like when good environmental status (GES) has been achieved.
The ICES underwater noise data portal will not record all sounds in the seas, just the human caused impulsive noise that occur due to activities such as pile driving, seismic surveys, controlled explosions and from some naval operations.
The ICES impulsive noise data portal assembles data supplied by OSPAR (North East Atlantic) and HELCOM (Baltic Sea) and will register noise events collated nationally from registers of licenced events.
As there is currently inadequate knowledge on the effects of underwater sound and the effects of impulsive noise especially to quantify effects on ecosystem and population levels, the data portal aims to increase our knowledge of trends in these sounds.
The ICES underwater noise data portal is available through the ICES Data Centre.
