Task Team on Low-Cost Hydrophones for Research, Education, and Citizen Science

An IQOE-sponsored workshop held in December 2021 recommended that IQOE develop the idea of low-cost hydrophones for research, education, and citizen science, distinct from more expensive calibratable hydrophones that are needed for observations as part of the Global Ocean Observing System.

This task team will gather community input as follow-up to the Dec. 2021 workshop and report back to the 2024 IQOE Science Committee meeting. Task Team members include Lucille Chapuis (Chair), Mihai Burca, Tess Gridley, Xavier Mouy, Artash Nath, Sophie Nedelec, Mark Roberts, Jim Theriault, Nathan Touchet, Rob Williams, and Walter Zimmer.

Invitation to Tender for development of a low-cost hydrophone

August 2024 Update on Task Team Activities

Infographic Presenting Results of Survey on Low-Cost Hydrophones

Relevant Publications

AudioMoth: Evaluation of a smart open acoustic device for monitoring biodiversity and the environment
HydroMoth: Testing a prototype low-cost acoustic recorder for aquatic environments
Chapuis, L., M. Burca, T. Gridley, X. Mouy, A. Nath, S. Nedelec, S. Seeyave, J. Theriault, E. Urban, R. Williams, and W.M.X. Zimmer. 2024. Development of a low-cost hydrophone for research, education, and community science. OCEANS 2024 - Halifax, Halifax, NS, Canada, 2024, pp. 1-7, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10754094

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.