On World Ocean Day 2026, the OCEANOISE Conference Series Science Advisory Committee released the OCEANOISE 2026 Declaration: A Call for Immediate Action on Ocean Noise, urging governments, regulators, industry leaders, financial institutions and international organisations to recognise underwater noise as a fundamental component of ocean health and environmental governance.
The declaration is one of the principal outcomes of OCEANOISE 2026, the fourth edition of the international conference dedicated to understanding and addressing the impacts of human-generated sound on marine ecosystems.
Held from 25–29 May 2026 in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, the conference brought together scientists, industry representatives, policymakers, environmental organisations and civil society stakeholders from around the world to assess the latest scientific evidence and discuss pathways toward more sustainable ocean management.
Sound: The Foundation of Life in the Ocean
The declaration emphasises a simple but often overlooked reality: the ocean is fundamentally an acoustic environment. For marine organisms, sound is not a secondary sense but the primary means of perceiving and interacting with their surroundings. Marine species rely on sound to communicate, navigate, locate food, avoid predators, find mates and maintain the ecological connections that underpin healthy ecosystems.
Despite its critical importance, underwater noise remains largely absent from many environmental assessments and marine management frameworks. While regulators routinely evaluate chemical pollution, habitat degradation and water quality, the acoustic impacts of human activities are often overlooked. According to the declaration, this omission can no longer be justified in light of the growing body of scientific evidence documenting the effects of noise on marine life.
From Species Impacts to Ecosystem Consequences
Research presented during OCEANOISE 2026 demonstrated that underwater noise affects a broad range of marine organisms, including fish, invertebrates and planktonic species, with consequences that can propagate throughout marine food webs. The declaration therefore calls for a shift away from a purely species-centric perspective towards ecosystem-based approaches that consider the cumulative effects of sound on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ocean-dependent economies.
Participants stressed that the challenge extends beyond the protection of individual species. Maintaining healthy acoustic environments is increasingly recognised as essential for preserving ecosystem resilience and ensuring the long-term sustainability of marine resources and services.
Emerging Ocean Industries Increase the Urgency
The declaration comes at a time when a new generation of ocean industries is rapidly expanding. Offshore renewable energy, deep-sea mining, autonomous underwater vehicles, underwater sensor networks, acoustic communication systems and future underwater digital infrastructures all depend, to varying degrees, on the use and transmission of sound in the marine environment.
Without effective acoustic management frameworks, the declaration warns that cumulative impacts may grow faster than society's ability to assess and mitigate them. As a result, OCEANOISE 2026 calls for anticipatory governance approaches that address potential impacts before they become widespread environmental problems.
Four Key Principles for Action
To address this challenge, the declaration outlines four priority actions:
1. Mandatory Acoustic Impact Assessments
Acoustic footprint assessments should become a standard component of project design, environmental impact assessments and operational decision-making for any activity affecting the marine environment. Sound must be treated as a core environmental variable rather than an incidental by-product of development.
2. Precautionary Management of Emerging Technologies
Developers of new ocean technologies should demonstrate acoustic responsibility before large-scale deployment. The declaration highlights emerging sectors such as deep-sea mining, underwater communication systems and autonomous underwater networks as areas where precautionary approaches are particularly important.
3. Protection of Entire Ecosystems
Environmental assessments should evaluate impacts across all levels of marine ecosystems rather than focusing exclusively on marine mammals or a limited number of sensitive species. Growing scientific evidence indicates that sound affects a wide diversity of organisms, making ecosystem-wide approaches essential.
4. Recognition of Sound as a Core Ocean Health Variable
The declaration calls for international recognition of sound as a fundamental indicator of ocean health. A healthy ocean, it argues, is not only biologically productive and chemically balanced but also acoustically functional.
A Challenge with Immediate Solutions
Unlike many environmental pressures, underwater noise offers a unique opportunity for rapid improvement. When noise sources are reduced, modified or removed, environmental benefits can often be observed immediately. This makes ocean noise one of the few forms of pollution for which tangible and measurable gains can be achieved in relatively short timeframes.
The declaration concludes with a message of urgency and optimism: the scientific knowledge exists, the technologies are available, and practical solutions are already within reach. What is needed now is collective commitment and decisive action.
As the OCEANOISE 2026 Declaration states, protecting the ocean's soundscape is not only an environmental necessity but one of the defining responsibilities of our time. By bringing underwater noise into mainstream ocean governance, decision-makers have an opportunity to safeguard biodiversity, strengthen ecosystem resilience and ensure a healthier future for the ocean and the communities that depend upon it.