THE NEW IMO NOISE CODE: A LOST TECHNICAL OPPORTUNITY. IRREVERSIBLE AND HIGH COST CONSEQUENCES FOR FISHERMEN AND OTHER SEAMEN THAT WILL CONTINUE BEING DEAF.

More than thirty years have passed since the appearance of the Code IMO Resolution A.468 (XII) until the adoption by Maritime Safety Committee on November 2012 of the Resolution MSC. 337(91). The Code of Noise Levels on board Ships. In this large period of time, much progress has been made; especially in the topics of noise and vibration on board “all types of ships” as well as the outdoor noise generated by them, which especially affects the environment and the marine life. As a direct consequence, and focusing only on protecting the health of all the seamen on board all types of ships again noise, the corresponding EU-Directives have become local laws of the Member States, mandatory for Ship-owners and Sailors. In parallel and obeying market requirements, the optional Noise and Vibration Comfort Class Notations of the different Classification Societies have been implemented in most of the Passenger Ships, for both Passenger and Crew spaces. Besides, in this demanding scenario, the noise and vibration consultants and the Shipbuilding Industry have had to move forward on providing solution to fulfil these requirements. Based on real cases, it has been proved that the compliance with the strictest requirements, including those concerning the Underwater Radiated Noise (URN) by the ships, is achievable. In this independent consultant’s opinion, with 37 years of experience solving noise and vibration problems during all his professional lifetime, the new IMO Noise Code appears as politically or diplomatically correct but technically obsolete, limited, unfair, source of commercial unbalances and, more seriously, not able to fulfil the aim of its definition: to protect personnel against noise on board ships. In order to avoid that these strong words, with all the respect, could appear as demagogic, in the present report the technical reasons and evidences supporting them are presented. ________________________________________________________________________________