25:["$","title",null,{"children":"North Sea Noise Disturbances | Vekta Group | Observable"}] 49:T582,Insights for this and next week will be exploring how offshore wind farms contribute to sound pressures on the environment. Many animals - including fish, invertebrates and marine mammals - use natural sound to navigate, communicate, find food, locate mates and avoid predators. Marine noise pollution can cause physiological stress and injuries, and even fatalities to the point where it can impact populations and ecosystems. This week will look at continuous underwater noise (sometimes called ambient noise), as opposed to next week which will look at impulsive noise (short sudden loud bursts of sound).

Continuous noise data has been downloaded from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The data was collected by Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) as part of noise pollution monitoring for the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). This dataset covers the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Continuous noise disturbance is one of the most widespread pressures stopping both seas from achieving 'Good Environmental Status'.

This week's Insight analyses continuous marine noise recorded in the North Sea in 2019. The ICES dataset includes noise disturbance from two sources: anthropogenic shipping noise and natural wind noise. To look at anthropogenic noise disturbance, only data for shipping has been extracted at specific frequencies that marine animals are sensitive to. 4a:T7fc,The following map shows the 2019 dataset of continuous underwater noise from shipping, alongside shipping density in the same region^. There is a visible trend of similarity: areas with more shipping traffic also experience higher noise levels. However, the overlap is not perfect. Ambient noise extends beyond high density shipping zones, suggesting that underwater sound can travel far, impacting marine habitats kilometres away from vessel paths. This pattern reinforces the idea that shipping is the dominant source of continuous underwater noise in these regions, likely outweighing contributions from vessels servicing offshore energy infrastructure - at least for now.

It is important to note that this dataset only includes shipping noise. While offshore wind is expanding rapidly, there's currently limited publicly available data on continuous noise from wind developments. This means that strong conclusions cannot yet be drawn about their full acoustic impact, but there are growing concerns. Floating turbines may introduce different continuous noise sources through mooring lines, dynamic cables, and rotor movement in deeper waters. To understand the long term implications, more targeted noise monitoring is required, especially in developing wind energy zones.

Marine noise monitoring is still a relatively new field, made possible by advances in underwater recording technology. There is little information around what is considered a 'suitable' level of noise pollution, but all environmental organisations are calling for a reduction. Mitigation measures can be implemented to reduce harm, such as shipping restrictions in breeding or migratory areas and seasons, developing quieter technologies, or strategic siting away from vulnerable habitats. Ensuring that the clean energy transition also supports healthy marine ecosystems is key.

^The second image has been taken from Vekta Digital. Explore this dataset and many more layers on our free data platform: https://vekta-digitalplus.web.app.4b:T8c0,{ const container = yield htl.html`

`; const map = L.map(container); // Viridis color palette hex codes for DN values 0 to 50 const palette = [ "#440154FF", "#46085CFF", "#471064FF", "#48176AFF", "#481F70FF", "#482576FF", "#472C7AFF", "#46337EFF", "#443983FF", "#423F85FF", "#404588FF", "#3E4A89FF", "#3C508BFF", "#39568CFF", "#365C8DFF", "#34618DFF", "#31668EFF", "#2F6B8EFF", "#2D718EFF", "#2B758EFF", "#297A8EFF", "#277F8EFF", "#25848EFF", "#23898EFF", "#218E8DFF", "#20928CFF", "#1F978BFF", "#1E9D89FF", "#1FA187FF", "#21A685FF", "#25AB82FF", "#29AF7FFF", "#30B57CFF", "#38B977FF", "#40BD72FF", "#4AC16DFF", "#55C568FF", "#5FCA61FF", "#6BCD5AFF", "#77D153FF", "#84D44BFF", "#91D742FF", "#9FDA3AFF", "#ACDC30FF", "#BADE28FF", "#C8E020FF", "#D6E21AFF", "#E4E419FF", "#F1E51DFF", "#FDE725FF", "#FDE725FF" ]; // Function to style the features based on DN value function styleFeature(feature) { const DN = feature.properties.DN; const color = palette[DN]; // Assign color based on DN value return { color: color, weight: 1, // Hide borders opacity: 1, fillOpacity: 1, }; } // Add GeoJSON layer to the map const layer = L.geoJSON(contnoise2, { style: styleFeature, }).addTo(map); map.fitBounds(layer.getBounds(), { maxZoom: 9 }); L.tileLayer("https://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png", { attribution: "© OpenStreetMap contributors", }).addTo(map); // Create the legend const legend = L.control({ position: 'bottomright' }); legend.onAdd = function (map) { const div = L.DomUtil.create('div', 'info legend'); div.style.background = "white"; div.style.padding = "10px"; div.style.borderRadius = "5px"; const selectedDNs = [0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50]; div.innerHTML += '

Noise Disturbance (0–50 au)

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${dn}

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\nThere is a slight pattern of offshore wind farms associated with higher disturbance, as the blue points are slightly higher compared to the orange. This may be due to the presence of operation and maintenance vessels being more frequent around wind farms. However, there is little to no change in disturbance across the different distances sampled. This suggests that other shipping vessels may be the main source of disturbance.","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":922,"value":"Plot.plot({\n width: 1200, // Increase the width of the plot\n color: {\n legend: true,\n domain: [\"Oil & Gas Platforms\", \"Offshore Wind Developments\"],\n range: [\"#EE964B\", \"#19647E\"]\n},\n marks: [\n Plot.dot(renamedData, Plot.dodgeX(\"middle\", { \n fx: \"Distance\", \n y: \"Noise\", \n fill: \"energy\",\n tip: true // Enables tooltips\n }))\n ]\n})","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":19,"value":"## Shipping Noise vs. Density","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":22,"value":"$4a","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":952,"value":"$4b","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":1040,"value":"screenshot20250407181347 = FileAttachment(\"Screenshot 2025-04-07 181347.png\").image()","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":9,"value":"
\n## Appendix","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":112,"value":"### Data","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":11,"value":"### Shipping Noise Associated with Energy Sites","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":876,"value":"contnoise = await FileAttachment(\"Contnoise_analysis@1.csv\").csv({typed: \"auto\"})","pinned":true,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"contnoise","database":"$undefined"},{"id":926,"value":"data2 = contnoise","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":924,"value":"renamedData = data2.map(d => ({\n ...d,\n energy: d.energy === \"oil\" ? \"Oil & Gas Platforms\" : \n d.energy === \"wind\" ? \"Offshore Wind Developments\" : \n d.energy\n}));","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":13,"value":"### Shipping Noise vs. Density","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":949,"value":"contnoise2 = FileAttachment(\"contnoise_selectedbands_vectorjson.geojson\").json()","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":368,"value":"html``","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","tool":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"}],"files":"$W4c","stdlib":"1"}} 24:null