The IQOE-endorsed PhYsic project has establised a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PHySIColombia/.

Maritime authorities in Sweden and Denmark have proposed a rerouting of the main shipping routes into the Baltic Sea, scheduled to be implemented in 2020. This creates a unique opportunity to study effects of heavy ship traffic in a shallow sea. The IQOE-endorsed project "Rerouting shipping lanes in the Kattegat – effects on soundscape and ecosystem (TANGO)" will measure a range of parameters in the existing shipping lane, the new shipping lane and reference areas away from the shipping lanes. This will be done for at least a full year prior to rerouting, to establish a baseline, and at least one full year after the change. The primary goal of the project will be to describe changes to the soundscape (by sound recorders) in ecological important areas and quantify effects on harbour porpoise abundance (by passive acoustic monitoring). Secondary goals will be to study other ecosystem components: birds (by aerial surveys), fish (by eDNA) and benthic invertebrates (by surveys and sampling). This is an example of the opportunistic approach employed by IQOE-related projects to study the effects of sound on marine organisms without adding sound to the ocean.

The U.S. National Research Council recently released a report entitled Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current. The report recommended establishment of a grant program for research, which has been implemented. The report describes the use of acoustics to study the Loop Current.  Hard copies are available for purchase and a pdf version of the report can be downloaded for free.

The IQOE Working Group on Standardization has released an inventory of existing standards for observations of sound in the ocean.  It can be found on the IQOE Website at www.iqoe.org/.../IQOE Inventory of existing standards - Version 2018-04-06.pdf.

Soundscapes is the focus on one of the four IQOE themes. See this article on soundscapes by IQOE scientists.

The IMOS passive acoustics facility has made passive acoustic data from four sites around Australia publicly available since 2008 at one site, although funding now may cause a temporary pause.  This document  summarizes the facility. The operation of the IMOS facility could be considered a model for how passive acoustic data can be disseminated. One can go to https://acoustic.aodn.org.au/acoustic/, choose a deployment, an 18-day spectrogram will pop up and if one has the right browser, click somewhere and the nearest samples’ spectrogram and waveform pop up with an option to download the sample.  It is easy, for example, to locate whales this way.

IQOE sponsors are contributing to SeaBASS 2018 (see https://marine.unh.edu/seabass). Applications are sought for students to participate in the summer school. Local support (lodging and meals) will be provided for accepted students. 2-3 students from developing countries will additionally have their travel costs supported by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).

This workshop on 6 May 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA will provide an update on the activities of the International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE) in relation to the effects of ocean noise on marine organisms and will provide an opportunity for the broader ASA community to influence IQOE activities through discussions as part of the workshop. The agenda for the session will be posted on this site when it is available. See Workshops page of IQOE Web site.

IQOE launched its re-designed Web site.

On 12 September 2017, IQOE announced the formation of the IQOE Working Group on Arctic Acoustic Environments.  The group is co-chaired by Philippe Blondel (UK) and Hanne Sagen (Norway). The working group will coordinate national acoustic observations, research, and modelling in the Arctic Ocean and will compile of baseline acoustic data.