Our Ocean Conference 2025 Side Event — EIA
A closeup view of foamy water

Our Ocean Conference 2025 Side Event

Solutions to Stem Ocean Noise Pollution and Protect Marine Biodiversity

Hosted by Panamá and Belgium

Monday, April 28 from 14:30 – 16:00

BEXCO Busan, Exhibition Center 1, Room 213

This event will host panelists to discuss practical actions governments, policy-makers, civil society, and industry can take to assess and reduce shipping noise. At the end of this event, attendees will be informed of effective measures to reduce shipping noise, along with examples of successful policy or other actions that can support the shipping industry to implement noise reduction measures.

Panelists:

  • Digna Barsallo, Director of Coasts and Seas, Ministry of Environment, Panamá
  • Lucie Debaere, Marine Environment Policy Officer, FPS Health, Food Chain Safety, and Environment, Belgium
  • Regan Nelson, Natural Resources Defense Council, USA
  • Dr. Carlos Polo, Sharky Management and Consulting (Moderator)

Reduction of marine pollution is a shared goal among nations. Target 14.1 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals focuses on “preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds”, and Target 7 of the Global Biodiversity Framework seeks to “reduce all forms of pollution to levels that do not adversely affect biodiversity”. 

One widespread form of pollution in the ocean is anthropogenic underwater noise, which has been shown to negatively impact biodiversity throughout the entire marine food chain. Scientists have documented impacts to aquatic plants, plankton, invertebrates, fishes, and marine mammals, with implications for marine ecosystems and the blue economy.   

Commercial shipping is recognized as the primary contributor to ocean noise pollution across the ocean basin. With the growth in global shipping activities, shipping noise has been intensifying—doubling roughly each decade – and new evidence suggests that climate change will drive changes in ocean characteristics that will further amplify noise pollution. 

The recognition that action is needed to reduce shipping noise is not new. The Convention on Biological Diversity, in Decision 15/24, paragraph 14, encourages Parties and governments to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the potential significant adverse impacts of anthropogenic underwater noise on marine and coastal biodiversity. Similar language can be found in the annual UN General Assembly Resolutions on the Law of the Seas, in Resolution 12.14 of 2017 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species, and in Resolution 2018-4 of the International Whaling Commission. In 2023, the International Maritime Organization approved voluntary guidelines to reduce underwater noise from ships (MEPC.1/Circ.906), and also disseminated guidelines developed by the Inuit Circumpolar Council specifically focused on reducing underwater noise in the sensitive Arctic region (MEPC.1/Circ.907).  

Despite such encouragement, there has been limited action by international institutions and governments to pursue management to reduce underwater noise from commercial shipping.