The Port of Vancouver provides guidance for quiet ship notations
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) has completed a three-year effort led by its ECHO Program to standardize the measurement and analysis procedures for quiet ship notations.
Developed in collaboration with Transport Canada and JASCO Applied Sciences, a Green Marine supporter and partner respectively, the document aims to develop guidance for ship certification societies wishing to issue quiet ship notations.
All of it was developed through workshops attended by representatives from seven international ship classification societies, the International Association of Classification Societies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and acoustic experts. Their expertise and contributions were instrumental in defining practical, consistent, technically sound methods for measuring and reporting underwater radiated noise from vessels in a way suitable for assessing quiet notations.
The document includes a spreadsheet that provides quartile levels of ship radiated noise level measurements from VFPA’s ECHO Program database for several ship categories that can be used to establish reasonable noise limits. The spreadsheet includes scaling parameters to account for different values of vessel speed through water.
The goal is to have a consistent and transparent process globally to encourage ship owners to seek and qualify for a quiet notation, ultimately supporting quieter oceans.