Abstract
Jointly produced by JNCC, Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, these guidelines outline measures to minimise potential injury from pile driving during offshore wind farm construction and other industries that use piling (e.g. oil and gas, harbour construction).
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.
Note: these guidelines are due to be updated, further information will be published once available.
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 (explosive use, geophysical surveys), visit https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/marine-mammals-and-noise-mitigation/.
