Last preparations that included testing of the equipment used for acoustic monitoring of underwater noise equipment, implemented within the Soundscape project funded through the EU CBC Programme Interreg Italy-Croatia, have been undertaken.

The first training was organized on 7th of February within the premises of the Blue World Institute where a team of experts from Develogic Subsea Systems from Hamburg presented details related to the handling of equipment that will be used for underwater noise recording. During the training, the team of Blue World Institute also calibrated the devices, which confirmed the correct operation of the instruments.

After this training, on 17th of February, the Blue World Institute´s team has made final preparations in order to perform the underwater testing of the equipment performance at the depth of about 30 meters. The final deployment of the acoustic monitoring equipment for an initial duration of one month is scheduled for the end of the week, after which continuous monitoring will be carried out until February 2021, with periodic recovery and redeployments of the equipment that will be undertaken in order to perform battery check-up and collection of recorded data.

The data collected will be used to model the sound propagation in the sea, to identify changes in the marine soundscape, and to identify the dominant sources of noise pollution. The results of the project will contribute to the development of effective measures to mitigate the effects of noise pollution on the marine environment and sensitive marine species for which sound is of particular importance for survival.