Abstract
In order to support E.ON's request for the modification of seasonal restrictions on piling at the Rampion Offshore windfarm, HR Wallingford was commissioned to examine underwater noise propogation arising from a reduction in the proposed hammer energy.
Following a review of previous studies by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), E.ON commissioned HR Wallingford to re-analyse the previous model results in terms of a different metric for marine mammals, namely the M-weighted cumulative SEL for fleeing individuals so as to be more consistent with previous EIA studies. The modelling has also re-investigated the behavioural sound threshold for herring using a different metric and threshold.