Newsletters | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

Newsletters

The IQOE project issue newsletters periodically to update members of the international ocean acoustics and bioacoustics communities about IQOE activities and products, news from IQOE-endorsed projects, and other information relevant to IQOE. Newsletters published include the following:

Newsletter #1 (June 2018)
Newsletter #2 (March 2019)
Newsletter #3 (August 2019)
Newsletter #4 (January 2020)
Newsletter #5 (June 2020)
Newsletter #6 (November 2020)
Newsletter #7 (April 2021)
Newsletter #8 (February 2022)
Newsletter #9 (August 2022)
Newsletter #10 (February 2023)
Newsletter #11 (August 2023)
Newsletter #12 (January 2024)
Newsletter #13 (September 2024)
Newsletter #14 (April 2025)

Status

IQOE's term as a decadal project was completed on 31 December 2025. Since 2015, IQOE implemented its Science Plan (available here) developed from an open science meeting in 2012. IQOE 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

Although IQOE has completed its term, several activities begun by IQOE will continue to work independently or under a new structure. The IQOE Science Committee set up a committee to convene an open workshop to plan the next steps for continuing IQOE activities and for implementation of the Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable (EOV). The workshop will be held on 22-24 September 2026 at the Flanders Marine Institute in Oostende, Belgium. More details about the workshop will be forthcoming in the near future.