Public Outreach | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

IQOE has created various publications and press releases to inform non-scientists about the importance of understanding sound in the ocean, which has increased the visibility of IQOE and of ocean sound as a pollution issue. For general publication information about sound in the ocean, the Discover of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) Website provides a wide range of information.

News Releases

26 April 2023: Do fish bay at the moon? Can songs unmask mystery fish? Easedropping scientists create ocean soundscapes
February 2022: Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, "GLUBS", will help monitor marine life
April 2021: Emerging listening network will study seas uniquely quieted by COVID

Other Articles

Animal Sounds

Autonomous Real-time Marine Mammal Detections - This site provides observations of the presence of several species of whale around U.S. coasts.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS)
Ocean Biodiversity Listening Project
Ocean Conservation Research
Ocean Networks Canada

Status

IQOE is in its 8th year as a 10-year project and continues to implement of its Science Plan (available here). IQOE has successfully coordinated a variety of activities in ocean acoustics and bioacoustics through IQOE working groups on the use of acoustics to assess biodiversity, the importance of acoustic observations in the Arctic Ocean, standards for reporting ocean acoustic and bioacoustic data for IQOE, software for making acoustic observations comparable worldwide, and recommendations for implementation of an Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable for the Global Ocean Observing System. IQOE progress has been documented since June 2018 through IQOE Newsletters and since the beginning of the project through other products. IQOE identified 2020 as the Year of the Quiet Ocean because of evidence that ocean sound decreased because of decreases in human activities in the ocean due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next Steps

Activities in 2024 will include actions to help implement the Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable Implementation Plan; continuation of new activities on low-cost ocean acoustic observing systems and expansion of the Open Portal to Underwater Sound (OPUS), implementation of the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, sponsorship of the second World Ocean Passive Acoustic Monitoring Day; and meetings of IQOE working groups and Science Committee.