Standards: ASA Standard Goes Underwater

This fall the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) published a new standard for the measurement of underwater sound from ships. ANSI/ASA S12.64‐2009/Part 1, “American National Standard, Quantities and Procedures for Description and Measurement of Underwater Sound from Ships‐Part 1: General Requirements” as it is now known, has a couple of firsts. It is the first ASA noise standard concerned with underwater sound. More importantly it is the first known civilian standard in the world for quantifying the underwater sound of ships. The need for this standard grows out of environmental concerns and efforts to reduce all types of vessel emissions. Initially, the focus was on the reducing ballast water and engine emissions, but concern about ship noise has been growing over the past decade or more. The standard was developed by S12/Working Group 47, a subgroup of ANSI Accredited Standards Committee