Abstract
These guidelines outline measures to minimise potential injury from the use of explosives from activities such as harbour construction, well-head or platform decommissioning and unexploded ordnance clearance.
In addition to the current guidelines (August 2010), a standardised marine mammal recording form is provided below. This is an Excel spreadsheet with embedded worksheets. A ‘deck form’ is also available which MMOs may prefer to use when observing before transferring the details to the Excel Spreadsheets. A guide to completing these forms is also provided. After each survey is complete, a ‘MMO report’ is submitted to the Regulator and JNCC along with the completed marine mammal recording forms. This report details how the guidelines were implemented, and any problems encountered or instances of non-compliance. The ability to determine range is a key skill for MMOs and a useful tool to assist in this function is a rangefinding stick. Instructions on how to design and use a rangefinding stick are provided below.
Unexploded Ordnance: The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) together with JNCC, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Natural England (NE), the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED), and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), published a joint interim statement in November 2021 which sets out our position on the use of lower noise alternatives to high order detonation of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) within the marine environment. JNCC is currently preparing interim guidance on mitigation options which will be published in due course, following a stakeholder engagement exercise in November and December 2023.
The mitigation guidelines are supplemented by JNCC guidance for the use of Passive Acoustic Monitoring in UK waters, published in December 2023. This guidance aims to standardise when PAM is used to mitigate the risk of deliberate injury to marine mammals and provides guidance on how to deploy PAM systems.
For more information on marine mammals and noise mitigation, and to access the other guidelines (piling, geophysical surveys), visit https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/marine-mammals-and-noise-mitigation/.
