The FaunaGuard: an innovative acoustic device to protect marine fauna near marine construction activities.

Van Oord and Ace Aquatec have formed a strategic partnership whereby the FaunaGuard will be made available to all marine contractors and other interested parties. The FaunaGuard is an innovative acoustic device to protect marine fauna near marine construction activities. 

Newly launched, the FaunaGuard will be available for the rest of world. It can be used during all offshore activities such as rock installation, piling, drilling, blasting and large-scale dredging operations to safely and temporarily deter marine fauna species using specialised underwater acoustics. Until now it was only used by Van Oord on several projects, such as the Gemini Offshore Wind Park in the Dutch part of the North Sea.

The porpoise module is the first module of the FaunaGuard that is now commercially available. In collaboration, Ace Aquatec and Van Oord will bring the other modules to market in the coming months and years and will continue research to develop further species-specific modules.

Ace Aquatec is a leading Scottish company in acoustic systems for marine and aquaculture application and electric stunning systems for fish farms. The partnership between Van Oord and Ace Aquatec combines their both backgrounds and experiences to deliver new hardware for the FaunaGuard. Due to the increasing regulations regarding sustainability, the role of safely deterring animals away from construction works will become more important and is often even mandatory in order to execute a project.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Van Oord