Pilot study underwater sound Wadden Sea

The Wadden Sea is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009. Achieving (or maintaining) a good environmental status in this area is of great interest, but there is currently very little information on underwater sound. Therefore, Rijkswaterstaat initiated a pilot project to build up knowledge about the collection and analysis of underwater sound in the shallow Wadden Sea, and to make a first inventory of underwater sound levels, with a focus on the sound from vessel traffic and the individual contributions of various vessel types. The Wadden Sea underwater sound pilot project has produced a valuable set of data from two weeks of recording along the navigation channels between Lauwersoog and Schiermonnikoog and between Harlingen and Terschelling.