Another excerpt from Marine Scotland Guidance:
“Two main factors have the potential to cause death or injury to an animal, resulting in an offence:
- physical contact; and
- anthropogenic sound (noise)”
So, potentially an increase risk of physical contact with cetaceans and tanker / tugs undertaking STS but the interesting part is noise. The guidance carries on:
“Since noise can potentially cause disturbance to cetaceans, marine users should be aware that where their activity introduces sound to the marine environment, Marine Scotland (Licensing Operations Team) will require detailed information on the source level of the sound and its frequency. Furthermore, it is likely that noise propagation modelling will be required to determine the range at which disturbance might occur therefore marine users should discuss their proposals with Marine Scotland (Licensing Operations Team).”
This was completely missing from the last application. Why? Will it be in the next application? We will be demanding it and the Scottish Government should be demanding it too, after all, the need for noise assessment is in their own guidance!
