The UK government organisation, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (more commonly known as JNCC) is "...the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation." has had a long term vested interest in the impact of geophysical or seismic surveys on the marine environment for many years. Even back in the 1990s, it was understood at a government level that the impact of the sound energy produced by seismic surveys needed to be investigated and monitored. JNCC guidelines have been and continue to be one of the references used internationally as a possible baseline standard for surveys in seismic contracts world-wide, such as the 'JNCC guidelines for minimising the risk of injury to marine mammals from geophysical surveys (seismic survey guidelines)', 2017.