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Making ECOWAVES at the AquaPLAN Summer School 2025

06-06-2025

During the last week of May, those interested in underwater acoustics and marine conservation gathered in Naples to join AquaPLAN participant Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN) for the ECOWAVES Summer School: Marine Soundscapes in the Anthropophony Era. Open to graduates and postgraduates, postdocs, and early-career researchers from biology, ecology, physics, and engineering, the school ran from 26 to 30 May 2025. With researchers from the DIVES, eConscience, AquaPLAN, DeuteroNoise and KNOWhale projects as the lecturers, the summer school students learned from the leading experts in the field, including AquaPLAN’s coordinator Elena Maggi (University of Pisa (UNIPI), and partners Francesca Rossi and Francesco Caruso (SZN) along with one of our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) members, Lucia Di Iorio (University of Perpignan).

ECOWAVES Summer School 2025 lecturers and participants in Naples, Italy

Over an action-packed five-day schedule, participants explored the science of acoustic waves in seawater, gaining foundational knowledge in the physics of sound and the use of cutting-edge instruments to analyse marine soundscapes. While learning how marine organisms use sound for essential biological functions, they examined the effects of human-generated noise pollution on coastal and oceanic systems. Noise pollution in marine ecosystems is one of the most pressing issues in marine conservation. It is estimated that 91% of Europe’s seas are exposed to continuous shipping noise and 10% are exposed to high shipping density (Tasker, 2016).

The Summer School organisers were Francesco Caruso, Filomena Ristoratore, Francesca Rossi and Marco Signore. We look forward to seeing the participants future contributions of innovative solutions and impactful research, as they are equipped with the skills to assess the role of sound and the impacts of noise on the physiology and behaviour of marine organisms!

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