SATURN Annual Newsletter 4
Catch up on the SATURN Project's research activities in our fourth and final annual project newsletter!
Welcome to our fourth and final annual project newsletter! Below you’ll find articles from our project partner institutions that describe the the work they undertook in the final year of our project along with updates on our recent publications, policy briefs, and events.
We hope you enjoy them!
— The SATURN Consortium
https://www.saturnh2020.eu/
Contents
Scroll to read the articles below, or view each article individually on our website via the following links:
SATURN Closing Event in Brussels
by Orla-Peach Power, UCC
Upcoming SATURN Stakeholder Webinar
by Eric Baudin, Bureau Veritas
by Kathrin Kopke, Michael Ainslie, Christ de Jong, Orla-Peach Power and Thomas Heising
by Kathrin Kopke, Michael Ainslie, Christ de Jong, Orla-Peach Power and Thomas Heising
Updates from our Partners at TNO
by Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, TNO
by Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo)
SATURN at European Maritime Day 2025
by Orla-Peach Power, UCC
by Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo)
SATURN Closing Event in Brussels
We had the opportunity to deliver the SATURN Project's closing event in conjunction with the Interreg North Sea-funded DEMASK project workshop on key URN metrics in Brussels (26-27 May, 2025).
The outcome of this expert workshop was designed to be of value to practitioners, end-users, and stakeholders directly involved in addressing the reduction of underwater noise. With several partners in common, the SATURN and DEMASK teams maximised synergies by combining efforts in this event to efficiently share outputs and explore fundamental issues of common and broader sectoral interest.
This two-part event began by highlighting the key SATURN Project outputs by presenting them in the context of the current IMO URN Action Plan and Experience Building Phase (EBP), which is designed to facilitate the application of the IMO guidelines to vessels as part of the URN Management Planning Process.
Upcoming SATURN Stakeholder Webinar
The European Commission funded SATURN project, has focused on a number of interconnected objectives related to the impact of shipping noise on marine life throughout the project lifecycle. These have included:
Developing standards and methods to measure and assess ship noise,
Quantifying sound exposure of marine mammals and quantifying individual and population-level responses of invertebrates, migratory fish, and marine mammals,
Demonstrating and evaluating decision support tools for Marine Spatial Planning, and
Demonstrating and assessing technical solutions to mitigate ship noise.
In this upcoming webinar session our project partners from Work Package 4 will share the approaches and results for technical mitigation solutions for current and future vessels which include a pumpjet as well as a trochoidal propulsor, a retrofit propeller design and the use of air bubbles. The solutions will be presented with respect to their costs, efficiency (EEXI/EEDI/CII), and underwater radiated noise.
After the presentations, the floor will be open to our participants to highlight their readiness to replicate these methods, consider factors relevant to implementing these solutions; and to share your views on which factors may support or constrain early adoption of these actions.
SATURN Policy Brief No. 2
We are happy to announce the availability of our second SATURN Project policy brief on 'Consolidating Measures to Address Underwater Radiated Noise from Shipping'!
This policy brief underscores the urgency of consolidating efforts to standardise underwater noise measurement and management under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) agenda. Harmonisation of practices is essential for effective mitigation of shipping noise impacts on marine ecosystems, enabling sustainable maritime development.
Access your copy here!
SATURN Policy Brief No. 3
Our third and final SATURN policy brief ‘Integrating Underwater Radiated Noise Considerations into Marine Spatial Planning‘ is now available to download through our project website and ResearchGate!
The SATURN Project developed a structured approach for integrating Underwater Radiated Noise (URN) considerations into Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) processes using a risk-based Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) methodology. This approach provides decision-makers with a harmonised step-by-step methodology to assess, model, and mitigate the impacts of URN on marine ecosystems.
The methodology leverages web-based Decision Support Tools (DSTs), ensuring accessibility and scientific robustness in evaluating URN-related risks and management. This policy brief highlights the role that MSP can have in managing underwater noise, provides links to and information about the SATURN DSTs, presents a strategic pathway forward for addressing this growing environmental challenge and outlines the SATURN Project’s key recommendations.
Access your copy here!
Updates from our Partners at TNO
The Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research TNO was involved in various tasks in the last year of the SATURN Project, many of which were connected with work being undertaken in Work Package 2, and Work Package 3. Some of this work included:
Development of guidelines for sound particle motion mapping,
Development of standardized terminology,
Development and testing of procedures for measuring URN of ships in shallow water,
Participation in the ISO Working Group that developed the draft international standard ISO DIS 17208-3
Participation in our SATURN webinar series, and
Collaboration on Technical Reports and Publications.
Exposure of Short-Finned Pilot Whales to High-Amplitude Vessel Noise in the Teno-Rasca Special Area of Conservation
Over the past year, the University of La Laguna team has studied the exposure of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) to noise from maritime traffic in southwest Tenerife, specifically in the Teno-Rasca Special Area of Conservation, through on-animal acoustic biologging devices.
This research, conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo), applied an innovative methodology to semi-automatically detect vessel passages which has already been successfully applied to other marine mammal species.
SATURN at European Maritime Day 2025
The SATURN Project was happy to have had the opportunity to participate in this year's European Maritime Day event which took place in Cork City, Ireland form the 21-23 May 2025! This annual event saw upwards of 1,200 members of Europe’s maritime community coming together to discuss joint actions on maritime affairs and sustainable blue economy.
As part of this event, our SATURN Project coordinator Gerry Sutton joined 11 other remarkable projects funded by the European Commission, at a dedicated EU Stand which was open on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd in Cork City Hall.
On the day, EMD2025 attendees had the opportunity to discuss our key project findings and results with Gerry, and to watch a range of videos developed as part of the project. The SATURN videos on 'Trochoidal Propeller Tests' and 'Technical Solutions to Reduce the Impact of Shipping Noise on Marine Life' were of particular interest to our attendees
We were of course in great company during our afternoon session, with representatives from the RAPID 2020 and ULTFARMS projects joining us for the duration.
SATURN Short Film
This SATURN video which was developed by our partners at TiHO gives insights into the 2023-2024 project investigations on mitigation measures of cavitation noise from ship propellers and noise from ship machinery (e.g. bubble injections and curtains). It also outlines work that was done on two air injection systems (Masker and & Prairie System), the pump jet propulsion and the trochoidal propeller.
We would like to thank Johan Bosschers (MARIN), Thomas Lloyd (MARIN), David Grassi (CETENA), Mario Felli (CNR), Pol Muller (SIREHNA) for participating in the recording process!
Our YouTube Channel Has Moved!
As our SATURN Project is drawing to a close, we have migrated our YouTube channel to a new location to ensure people will continue to have access to our content!! You can access all of our project videos now at our new link!
Publications
Verification and validation of source and propagation models for underwater sound (The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2025).
Unsealing behaviour: Variation in harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) responses to anthropogenic sound in relation to individual health (Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2025).
Measuring Vessel Source Level in Shallow Water Using the Smoothed Semi-coherent Image Method (The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2025).
Natural and shipping underwater sound distribution in the Northern Adriatic Sea basin and possible application on target areas (Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2024).
Harbour porpoises respond to recreational boats by speeding up and moving away from the boat path (Ecology and Evolution, 2024).
Natural soundscapes of lowland river habitats and the potential threat of urban noise pollution to migratory fish (Environmental Pollution, 2024).
Modelling sound particle motion in shallow water (The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2024)
You can access all of our project papers, technical reports, and policy briefs on our project website at the following link!
Recent Presentations
INTERNOISE 2024 (25-29 August, 2025) - SATURN partners from MARIN, UCC, Hannover, Bureau Veritas, and PLOCAN chaired, and delivered a number of presentations as part of a session dedicated to the impacts of transportation noise on biodiversity (Read More).
Tripartite Working Group Meeting - (9 October, 2024) Roberto Yubero (TSI) and Christ de Jong (TNO) participated in the meeting of 'The Tripartite Working Group', which met to discuss the reduction of underwater radiated noise from commercial shipping (Read More).
Underwater Noise Pollution: BluEcho Project Workshop (16-19 October, 2024) - Thomas Lloyd (MARIN) and Johan Bosschers (MARIN) presented their work on modelling the mitigation effect of air injection on ship URN as part of at a BlueEcho Project workshop which focused on the impact of underwater noise on marine fauna (Read more).
Bioacoustics Day 2024 (29 October, 2025) - Thomas Lloyd (MARIN) and Johan Bosschers (MARIN) presented MARIN'S work on modelling the mitigation effect of air injection on ship URN at a workshop held as part of Bioacoustics Day 2024 (Read more).
Séminaire GICAN sur le bruit sous-marin (6 December, 2024) - Eric Baudin (Bureau Veritas) delivered a presentation entitled ‘How to silence ships: Preliminary results from the SATURN Project’ to the GICAN (French Industry Cluster of ship building) which included contributions from work conducted by Johan Bosschers, Thomas Lloyd, and Frans Hendrik Lafeber (MARIN) (Read More).
Coastal and Marine Systems Research Group (19 December, 2024) - Project coordinator Gerry Sutton (MaREI, UCC), was on site at MaREI to deliver a brief talk to the Coastal and Marine Systems research cluster about the development of Underwater Noise research in Europe, with particular reference to how projects like SATURN have contributed to the field (Read More).
36th European Cetacean Society (14-16 May, 2025) - Jacob Nabe-Nielsen (Aarhus University) delivered a poster presentation entitled 'Impacts of Ship Noise on Harbour Porpoise Movements and Population Dynamics' at this year’s conference (Read More)
One Ocean Science Congress (3-6 June, 2025) - Participants included Eric Baudin (Bureau Veritas), Thomas Folegot (Quiet Oceans), and Santiago Molins Riera, TSI -Técnicas y Servicios de Ingeniería S.L.
We here at SATURN HQ, would like to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers and followers as we finally draw our project to a close. Your support has been instrumental to the objectives and impact of the project and we hope you have enjoyed the many resources produced during its time.
You can continue to access all these resources through our project website www.saturnh2020.eu, but should you have any queries, you can contact our project coordinator Gerry Sutton at the Sustainability Institute, UCC.