Reports and Articles | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

Audio and Video

How human noise affects ocean habitats (audio and video) - TED Talk by Kate Stafford, filmed Nov. 2016

Sounds of the Sea (audio) - Air Date: Week of March 28, 2014

The Voice of the Natural World (audio and video) - TED Talk by Bernie Krause, Filmed June 2013

The Noisy Ocean and Its Consequences (audio) - Air Date: Week of August 19, 2011

The Intriguing Sound of Marine Mammals (audio and video) - TED Talk by Peter Tyack, filmed April 2010

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.