SONATE 2020 – a decision aid tool to mitigate the impact of naval sonar operations on marine life

SONATE is a decision aid tool for planning of sonar exercises, to mitigate impact on marine life. The story of SONATE started with the Nansen-class frigates of the Norwegian Navy, which are equipped with 1-8 kHz sonars. Such sonars are potentially harmful to marine life. To mitigate this potential problem, FFI developed SONATE for the Royal Norwegian Navy. SONATE combines geographical information of marine life with “Procedure for use of active sonar in Norwegian waters” issued by the Royal Norwegian Navy based on recommendations from FFI. The procedure contains guidelines for planning and execution of sonar exercises. The first version of SONATE was published in 2006. Several versions built on different platforms were published the following years. These are described in detail in earlier FFI reports, the latest being published in 2015. In 2015, SONATE was the final delivery of the FFI project “Sonar and Marine Environment”, and at that point, no further development or updates were planned. In 2019, the Norwegian Navy requested an update of SONATE with databases and sonar instructions. This report describes the 2020 update, which is based on the 2015 SONATE ArcReader version. The database in SONATE has been updated with new information from the Institute of Marine Research about species distribution and abundance, and updated information on fishery activity and aquaculture from the Directorate of Fisheries. The functionality of SONATE has been modified according to the users’ request, and we have recommended new sonar guidelines as a basis for the new naval sonar procedures. This report summarizes the functionality of SONATE 2020 and the scientific basis for the new sonar procedures.