The Marine Mammal Observer Association (MMOA) is of the belief that companies providing MMO and PAM Operator personnel should abide by the following:

• Provide only suitably qualified, experienced, and appropriately referenced personnel
• The ability to recognise the skills needed to be competent and professional in the field of marine animal mitigation
• Have a comprehensive understanding of [worldwide] mitigation requirements.
• Have the appropriate knowledge of passive acoustic monitoring and understand its limitations in the field (and the ability to make potential clients aware of these limitations from the outset). This is only applicable to those companies providing PAM equipment and/or PAM Operators
• The ability and internal company systems to provide appropriate legal contracts to marine animal mitigation personnel, including the timing and duration of each project and/or rotation, day rates, payment schedule, travel, visa arrangements and all other applicable logistical and contractual considerations
• Cover all insurance required for any marine animal mitigation personnel to work on industry projects. The company should make clear any gaps in insurance provided.
• Provide MMOs and PAM Operators with appropriate documentation prior to the beginning of the project (e.g., Environmental Impact Assessment, appropriate consent/permit/license, Environmental
• Management Protocols, templates for daily, weekly, project reports, etc).
• Recommend sufficient numbers of marine animal mitigation personnel to Client(s) to ensure compliance with project mitigation regulations.
• Provide a Quality Assurance system for all marine animal mitigation data
• Provide guidance, autonomy and clear means of communication to marine animal mitigation personnel when offshore
• The ability to quality assure marine animal mitigation final reports, provide guidance on requirements and clear expectations on timelines and submission