While shipboard noise is an obvious concern to personnel operating or luxuriating onboard, increasing attention is being paid to the effects of ship-generated noise on the ocean environment. Consequently, this should catch the attention of ship designers, builders, owners and outfitters as the topic inevitably starts making the conference and legislative rounds. Headlining efforts in the U.S. is the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), whose researchers are studying the effects of man-made undersea noise and its relationship to a healthy ocean, and its effects on certain types of marine species. Undersea noise has reportedly been shown as affecting the habitual behavior of marine mammals…
