The first three days of the MMO course will provide the theoretical knowledge to work as an MMO and the final day is a full day’s practical assessment out at sea, allowing you to put all the theory you have been taught into practice.
Throughout the theory you will receive continuous tests and assessments on each unit to ensure you have retained the correct information, allowing our staff to identify areas that require extra focus to ensure you are fully equipped to perform your job.
We provide you with the necessary knowledge to enable you to perform appropriately in a mitigation role and to be aware of your duties and responsibilities while implementing mitigation measures.
The training certificate is not the only requirement to qualify a person as an MMO or PAM Operator.
Our training courses act as a supplementary qualification for a person who already has acquired appropriate academic or marine mammal field experience to work as an MMO or PAM Operator.
Employers of our trained nMMO and nPAM Operators must understand that our certificates are considered an extra skill and are NOT the only requirement you should be seeking before you employ our newly trained operators.
The experienced xpMMO/xpPAM operators will have a certificate that states they have achieved 5 or more years in the industry in real time mitigation.
Please note that the JNCC certification allows you to work on the UKCS (United Kingdom Continental Shelf). The regulatory body has formalised training requirements of which we adhere to strictly before a student can pass the course.
Core Value Units:
- An understanding of the industry operations that require MMOs.
- History behind the importance of sound to marine mammals.
- Basic theoretical principles of sound.
- The potential effects of anthropogenic sound on cetaceans, marine fauna and SoC.
- Essential visual monitoring techniques, range estimation and methods (MMO courses).
- Field identification (visual or acoustic) of marine mammal and other SoC.
- The mitigation procedures being used in the geographic region.
- Soft start principles, procedures and real time monitoring.
- Mitigation Zones and Exclusion zones.
- Monitoring for marine mammals and other SoC.
- Monitoring compliance with mitigation procedures.
- Mitigating for cetaceans/marine life inside mitigation zones prior to operations, during soft and during full power.
- Scenarios that may arise and how to deal with these.
- Shipboard procedures and requirements.
- Recording MMO and/or PAM data and compliance reporting.
- Chains of command.
- The background and development of regional adopted mitigation procedures and their legislative framework.
- Specific explanations of the mitigation procedures for the regional/geographic area.
- Consent and permitting process of the procedures prior to projects.
- Collection of specific project data and regional forms for data collection.
- Understanding of cetacean physiology and behaviour.
- Correct Identification of species likely to be in the geographic area/region and which are regarded as SoC.
- Mobilisation/post mobilisation procedures, including health and safety.
- Specific PAM Operator Mitigation Training (Theory and Software Training)
- Recognition of different types of anthropogenic noise, unwanted ambient noise and masking problems.
- Recognition of different types of cetacean vocalisations.
- Understanding of the components of PAM equipment including cables, hydrophone elements, sound cards, filtering systems, depth sensors, laptops and software and their assembly, deployment and calibration.
- Principle components of PAM software and their displays, the need for project-specific configuration.
- Specific software training e.g. PAMGuard and Ishmael with practical instruction in creating configurations and basic settings relating to hardware used and method of deployment.
- Bearing determination and ranging of acoustic signals.
- Deployment scenarios and examples.
- Specific PAM Operator Mitigation Training (Assembly and Deployment)
Please note that the JNCC certification allows you to work on the UKCS (United Kingdom Continental Shelf).