Marine licensing – unexploded ordnance clearance: application guidance

Reporting on the clearance activity

Marine licensees may be required by condition of a marine licence to submit a report to MD-LOT detailing the outcomes of the clearance activity (returns). The details of such a report will be case-specific, but it is likely to include:  

• a summary of the clearance works undertaken, methods used, and any problems encountered  
• an overview of all mitigation employed, whether actions were required and of effectiveness. This section can replace the need for a separate Marine Mammal Observer mitigation report. However, it should usually include all the information typically included in that report. Guidance on what to include in this section can be found in the JNCC mitigation guidelines
• conclusions from noise monitoring (if applicable)

It is recommended that the following should be supplied as annexes: 

• a detailed noise monitoring report that includes both marine mammals and marine fish. The noise monitoring should consider noise sensitive species, essential habitat locations such as spawning and nursery areas and important seasonal periods such as fish spawning periods.
• a completed JNCC marine mammal mitigation spreadsheet
• target investigation reports (TIRs)

Note: standardised spreadsheets used for marine mammal mitigation should be submitted in their original Excel format and not as a pdf. In addition to providing evidence that mitigation was undertaken as required, this data may be collated by JNCC who may use it to inform future updates to mitigation guidelines.

Marine licences often require observations to ascertain any fish kill arising from the activity. Conditions may require a report of any observations to be submitted to MD-LOT after the detonation activity. Licensees may be required to carry out a search for any injured or dead fish at the surface of the site. Dead fish may be required to be collected, identified and measured, with a sample of fish being retained and frozen for further analysis if required.

Marine Noise Registry

Marine licences may have a condition that data should be submitted to the Marine Noise Registry (MNR) detailing all clearance activities undertaken. Note that the MNR requires predicted and post-clearance data to be submitted. More information on Marine Noise Registry is available.