13th Meeting of the MSFD Common Implementation Strategy Technical Group on Underwater Noise (TG-NOISE)

This meeting was held on 9th April 2019 at Foundation for Research and Technology -Hellas (FORTH) in Crete. Marta Sánchez from CTN presented QUIETMED2 Project and its specific objectives.

One of the current work items for TG Noise is to provide advice to support the implementation of the decision (EU) 2017/848 on Good Environmental Status (GES); this decision introduced the concept of threshold values.

Two activities will be in particular relevant for feedback from the TG Noise group as follows:
• Joint proposal candidate impulsive noise impact indicator; and
• Joint proposal of a methodology to establish thresholds in the Mediterranean Region.

Various partners of QUIETMED2 are members of TG Noise and others have been invited to join the Advisory Board.

Thematic workshop: Developing threshold values for underwater noise Common approaches for interpretation of data obtained in (Joint) Monitoring Programmes

In order to continue to contribute to this process, TG Noise organised a further thematic workshop titled Towards thresholds for underwater noise – Common approaches for interpretation of data obtained in (Joint) Monitoring Programmes – Part 3. This workshop was hosted by FORTH and took place on 10th- 11th April 2019 in Heraklion, Crete.

This workshop focused on finding consensus and agreeing on several topics that TG Noise earlier identified as relevant issues; the aim was to have a first outline of a common assessment approach to underwater noise. The outcomes of this workshop could act as the basis for providing advice to EU MS on the topics of a common methodology, reference conditions and options for the definition of threshold values.