Acoustic measurements in the Wadden Sea : Data collection, processing and delivery

The Wadden Sea is being used more intensively for a variety of activities, many of these activities are related to the irradiation of anthropogenic underwater noise into the environment. The awareness for this increase in noise levels and the possible environmental effects is growing recently. Under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Netherlands is obliged to conduct research into the environmental impact of underwater noise sources. Rijkswaterstaat therefore now wants to obtain more information on underwater noise in Dutch coastal environment. One of the knowledge gaps that Rijkswaterstaat wants to address is the underwater noise levels in the Wadden Sea (shallow water) and the individual contributions of various vessels (even though this area does strictly not fall under the MSFD, but the WFD).
With this research, a first inventory is made of the underwater noise levels related to vessels in the Wadden Sea. In addition, this project is used as a pilot for knowledge building for both the collection and analysis of underwater noise in shallow waters by Rijkswaterstaat.
This report provides background on the data collection and processing, the data was further analysed by de Jong and Jansen (2023).