IQOE Sponsorship | International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)

IQOE Sponsorship

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided most of the seed funding for the development of IQOE. SCOR and POGO are contributing additional resources for implementation.

During 2010, on behalf of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (New York, USA), Jesse Ausubel approached the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) to explore the idea of an International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE). With Sloan support, SCOR and POGO organized a feasibility workshop in the United States and subsequently an open science conference in 2011 in Paris. About 75 experts attended the 2011 conference at the headquarters of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, with additional assistance facilitated by IOC Executive Secretary Wendy Watson-Wright. Following the conference, SCOR and POGO dedicated significant time of professional staff members to help volunteer scientists develop the IQOE Science Plan and obtain endorsements of it. While the initial plan earned endorsements during 2015, Jesse Ausubel and VADM Paul Gaffney USN (Ret.) arranged philanthropic support to incubate the IQOE through the Monmouth University – Rockefeller University marine science and policy initiative, supported for the period 2015-2019. SCOR and POGO have each contributed modest additional resources for implementation. Funds suffice to continue to plan and build support for the IQOE, but additional funds must be obtained to establish stronger organizational infrastructure for the program internationally and in key nations and regions, and to conduct its actual implementation.

Status

IQOE is in its 9th 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.