Title
SAKAMATA: Managing the risk of sonar sound on marine mammals
Author
von Benda-Beckmann, A.M.
van der Zwan, T.
van Riet, M.W.G.
Benders, F.P.A.
Ainslie, M.A.
te Raa, L.A.
Publication year
2012
Abstract
SAKAMATA is a risk assessment and mitigation tool developed by TNO and used by the Royal Netherlands Navy. It supports the user in planning and carrying out active sonar operations in an environmentally responsible way. Recently, a new version has been developed, which makes it possible to quantify the number of marine mammals affected, taking into account physical injury, temporary hearing impairment and behavioural disturbance. Also, the efficacy of possible mitigation measures, such as variation of the sonar parameters, ramp-up schemes or alternative operation areas are quantified and presented to the operator. In SAKAMATA a scenario can be defined by positioning a platform on a map and selecting a sonar. A marine mammal database provides information on all marine mammals present at that time of year. Environmental information is taken from a database or specified manually by the user. An exposure assessment is carried out based on these input parameters, sound propagation as computed by the ALMOST model, and a model of behavioural response of marine mammals to sonar. This paper provides an overview of the exposure and risk assessment framework, and the underlying models and assumptions. Possible mitigation strategies that can be adopted will be demonstrated.
Subject
Physics & Electronics
AS - Acoustics & Sonar
TS - Technical Sciences
Defence Research
Defence, Safety and Security
Underwater Sound
Active Sonar
SAMATAKA
Marine Mammals
Risk Mitigation
Health effects
Physical injury
Behavioural Disturbance
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7a0897db-c22a-4ecf-a30a-26b0bbb47bb7
TNO identifier
461902
Source
Proceedings of the Conference on Undersea Defence Technology, UDT 2012, May 29-31, Alicante, Spain
Document type
conference paper