Harnessing the massive energy of the sea is one of the most exciting challenges of the 22nd century. It’s also one of the best ways to decarbonize our energy and thus reduce CO2 emissions and relative consequences on oceans. The oceans cover more than 70% of the world’s surface and its potential is still under-exploited. Offshore wind turbines, both Fixed Offshore Wind and Floating Offshore Wind, are the most promising systems to provide large amounts of energy.

The industrials in charge of the installation of offshore wind turbines face many environmental and societal challenges:

• working on the acceptance of the project by local associations, fishers, and inhabitants
• considering the new restrictive regulations to limit underwater noise, in particular for pile-driving operations
• selecting cost-effective solutions to be implemented on the worksites

Today, 60% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the shoreline, and population projections indicate that more than 75% will live there by 2035.

The number of coastal projects and developments is growing. Climate change is also leading to an increase in the number of major climatic events as well as the rise in the average level of the oceans. These 2 phenomena also lead to a strong and continuous increase in work aimed at repairing the damages or adapting coastal and port infrastructures.

Construction companies in charge of coastal and harbor works are facing many environmental and societal challenges:

• considering the new restrictive regulations to limit underwater noise
• setting up solutions to limit turbidity
• working on the acceptance of the project by local associations and inhabitants

In 2021, with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the EU has set ambitious new targets for maritime protection. Thus, the objective for member states is to legally protect 30% of the EU’s maritime areas and to integrate ecological corridors, which means an increase of 19% of maritime areas compared to 2021.

To meet this ambition, it appears essential that project developers and managers of natural areas have tools to:

• evaluating and monitoring the dynamics of biodiversity in a site over time
• acquiring knowledge to measure the anthropic pressures in sensitive habitats
• defining actions and regulations for the protection of ecosystems
• finding cost-effective solutions to verify that regulations to protect are respected, while limiting the need for human, material and financial resources.

The seaside tourism has been growing in the world since the 50s. With globalization, some tourist areas are very coveted, with peaks in attendance during the summer period.

The public authorities of coastal areas are facing several environmental and societal challenges:

• Preserving their natural heritage by supervising tourist activities.
• Acquiring knowledge to measure the anthropic pressures in sensitive habitats
• Evaluating the increase in tourist activities
• Monitoring the use of ecological mooring infrastructure by boaters
• Finding a cost-effective solution to verify that regulations to protect marine ecosystems are respected

In connection with globalization, territories are marked by urbanization. Cities are experiencing strong demographic growth as they concentrate on the core of economic activities. Work to build new housing, offices and associated transport infrastructure has been growing for decades.

Construction companies in charge of the works are facing some environmental and societal challenges:

• Working on the acceptance of the project by local associations and inhabitants
• Finding cost-effective solutions, in particular to mitigate noise levels that can have a significant impact on the daily life of residents of the cities.
• Keeping costs and deadlines for the construction sites

Laying pipe and main lines, connecting homes and businesses to gas lines, Oil & Gas has become integrated into our way of life. More than 80% of the current European Oil and Gas production takes place offshore.

The offshore O&G industry faces many environmental and societal challenges:

• Working on the acceptance of the project by NGO
• Limiting the environmental impacts of drilling operations, particularly underwater noise generation (up to 190 Db)
• Limiting the environmental impacts of support and transport vessels
• Finding new cost-effective solutions to lead their actions
• Keeping costs and deadlines for the construction sites

Maritime traffic increases every year as transporting goods from one continent to another becomes crucial for our economy.  Each year, more than 850 000 tons of goods are transported by sea with over 75 000 commercial ships accounted for in the world. With the growth of global shipping, ships are getting bigger and bigger and reaching higher and higher transit speeds, up to 15 knots for some big container ships.

Shipping companies face several environmental and societal challenges:

• Reducing CO2 emissions
• Reducing fuel consumption, especially by optimizing their fleet management and reducing the impact of biofouling on ship hulls
• Reducing collisions between ships and cetaceans
• Reducing underwater noise generated by vessels in transit and during waiting periods.

Ocean racing has become a world-renowned sport practiced by professionals on all the seas of the globe. Ships are increasingly optimized and automated to increase their performance, which allows them to reach speed records. During the last transatlantic crossings and round the world races, some ships have an average speed of 20 knots, i.e., 37 Km/h, with sometimes speed peaks at 30 knots.

The faster these ships go, the higher the risk of collision. The last editions have shown that more than 30% of the ships have been victims of a collision.

Offshore racing teams are looking to:

• Find new materials to continue optimizing the design of their boats
• Find new solutions to monitor their boats
• Find cost-effective solutions to reduce the risk of collision to increase the chances of skippers and limit repair costs