Developing a Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds and a World Oceans passive acoustic monitoring day

Abstract

The volumes of “Ocean Sound” recordings now being collected in aquatic systems around the world have reached a level that has necessitated a new wave of data sharing, processing, and analysis techniques to help detect, identify, and assess an increasing number of known and unknown sound sources and sound types. These new tools are matched with a need for reference material to assist the rapidly growing bioacoustics research community, and a process to standardize how they are characterized and reported. A working group of the International Quiet Ocean Experiment proposed the development of a Global Library of Underwater Biological Sound (GLUBS) to integrate new and existing applications to help address these needs. Two initial objectives of GLUBS have been to increase awareness of unknown sounds and to develop a community-wide project that can broaden our understanding of aquatic soundscapes around the world. To that end, we discuss recent developments in designing GLUBS, incorporating underwater sonifery as a searchable trait on the World Register of Marine Species, initiating a recent global community effort to simultaneously record aquatic soundscapes on World Oceans Day, and a drive to agree on a standard process for characterizing newly described sounds.