NAVISON

The NAVIs SONus (NAVISON) report is the first pan-European report to provide historical and future forecast underwater noise data for all European seas. Underwater noise from ships is recognised as a stress factor for marine life, particularly for cetaceans like whales and dolphins, who use sound to communicate with each other. It can harm marine biodiversity and cause behavioural changes in animals. Using a single methodology, NAVISON maps underwater noise levels in all European seas for the first time, providing a comprehensive, pan-European overview, and allowing quantitative like-for-like comparisons of shipping contributions to ambient sound between regions, vessel categories, years, and forecast scenarios.

This updated release reflects corrections made after the original publication in October 2024. A small number of ships with very high-speed engines (such as gas and steam turbines) were found to have slightly overestimated noise levels due to a modelling parameter that needed adjustment. This affected the categories of tankers and gas carriers (TGC), passenger vessels (PAS), and roll-on/roll-off (RRO) ships.

The issue was discovered through ongoing quality checks and has now been corrected. The updated results improve the accuracy of the sound maps, particularly in areas such as the Adriatic Sea and the northeast Atlantic Ocean.