This paper presents part of an ongoing research which aims to identify risk of noise exposure of fish harvesters involved in the inshore fishing fleet of the province, and provide short-term (adoption of hearing protection devices, best practice, gear modification) and long-term solutions (vessel design procedures and noise control) to reduce noise exposure and levels. In order to identify long-term solutions, the authors used data on sound pressure levels of spaces during regular fishing trips from an in-situ noise survey program on board a representative sample of fishing vessels. They used these measurements to identify the airborne 1/3 octave band transmission losses (TL) between spaces in order to identify critical acoustic hot-spots on the visited fishing vessels. The authors used such data to suggest possible noise control solutions that can effectively abate noise levels on board fishing vessels, in order to increase the comfort on board and reduce exposure to high noise levels due to on-board stationary continuous noise sources. The data and the interpretation of the TL curves presented in this paper can be useful to fishing vessels designer in order to have practical information on how to control noise on fishing vessels.
