GAIA Marine delivered a two-station underwater acoustic monitoring program to establish baseline sound conditions for a proposed marine energy development, providing practical evidence to support environmental assessment, project planning and review of existing anthropogenic noise influences.
GAIA Marine designed the program around two matched passive acoustic recorders: one positioned near the project area and one providing spatial context from a more vessel-influenced setting. This gave the client a stronger baseline than a single-point deployment.
The recorders were deployed in low-profile seabed frames, configured consistently and recovered using acoustic releases, avoiding surface markers in a busy marine environment. The program included side-by-side validation, staged deployment, servicing, data checks and redeployment, supporting confidence in recorder comparability and dataset integrity.
Final outputs focused on data completeness, broadband sound levels, spectral characteristics, threshold screening and station comparison. The result was a clear, traceable baseline dataset that provided the acoustic evidence needed for this stage of environmental assessment and project planning.