Brief History of “The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life” Meetings

The idea for holding The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life meetings arose in 2005 when the two of us and our wives got together in Aberdeen, Scotland. We discovered a shared interest in the effects of noise on aquatic animals and also realized that others with interests in the topic often focused on a single animal group, a single sound source, or specific technical issues. Even though these people could learn from one another and likely have very useful and productive collaborations, they almost never came together to share ideas and knowledge. Thus, we agreed that having a meeting that encouraged participation by a wide range of individuals with diverse interests could have a major impact on the field. This led to our first meeting in Nyborg, Denmark, in 2007, which we co-organized with Magnus Wahlberg, and then to very successful subsequent meetings. This chapter shares the history of the meetings from our perspective. We discuss the fundamental goals we set out for the meetings in 2007 and insights into how we planned several of the meetings. Finally, because we no longer anticipate being very involved in future meetings, we discuss how we would like to see the meetings evolve further.