In 2011, the name of the Seismic Survey Task Force was changed to Noise Task Force to acknowledge that its remit should include all aspects of the noise issue and not exclusively those related to seismic surveys.

The first Noise Task Force meeting was held in Vancouver on 13-14 November 2011 and the second just before the 11th WGWAP meeting, on 9-10 February 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland. The third Noise Task Force meeting was held, again under the chairmanship of Greg Donovan, on 2-3 November in Busan, Republic of Korea. The topics considered at this meeting included results of the monitoring and mitigation program applied to Sakhalin Energy’s 2012 2-D seismic geotechnical survey, analyses of data collected during Sakhalin Energy’s 2010 Astokh 4-D seismic survey, status of past noise recommendations, cumulative noise impacts and other issues.

Thanks to the support of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), a brochure on Marine Seismic Surveys - Modern Approaches to Minimizing Risks in Environmentally Sensitive Areas - Sakhalin Case Study was produced. It was first launched and distributed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Republic of Korea, September 2012, among others, and is available on this website in both English and Russian.

The fourth Noise Task Force meeting took place from 12 to13 May 2013 in Tokyo, Japan, immediately prior to the 13th WGWAP meeting. The report of this meeting will soon be published on this website.