The Hague, The Netherlands, 8-13 September 2024

About the meeting

The 8th International Meeting on the Effects of Sound in the Ocean on Marine Mammals (ESOMM) will be held in The Netherlands, The Hague (Scheveningen), overlooking the sea at the Carlton Beach Hotel. ESOMM is organized by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). The 8th ESOMM meeting follows the tradition of earlier ESOMM events in Beaufort NC (2022), Scheveningen (2018), Amsterdam (2011, 2014) and Lerici, Italy (as organized by the NATO Undersea research centre NURC in 2005, 2007, 2009. Attendance of the meeting is by invitation only.

The focus of ESOMM-2024, similar to previous ESOMM meetings, is to link science to policy and regulation by inviting combined representation of the research, policy and regulation communities. By doing so, we hope to facilitate and reinforce this multi stakeholder interaction. Originating as a NATO meeting, the main focus for ESOMM will be the environmental effects of sonar sound; but over the years other (impulsive) sound sources have increasingly been considered as well. We would like to encourage exchange of knowledge between different communities and industries on other sound sources, such as the oil & gas and the offshore wind industry.

The ESOMM meeting provides a platform to communicate recent scientific results and challenges in combination with addressing the needs from policy and regulator perspectives.

Information

This website will serve as the primary resource for all information related to the meeting, including important dates, registration, abstract submission, travel and accommodation. Additional information will be advertised when available.

Registration Registration is open

Formal registration is now open for ESOMM-2024 from 8-13 September 2024 in The Hague. Participation is based on invitation only.

Scientific programme

Draft schedule of ESOMM-2024

We will facilitate the start of registration Sunday 8 September during the informal “get together” that evening. After the official opening on Monday 9 September, we will continue for the rest of this first day with focus on linking all involved stakeholders. For the remaining four days there will be series of thematic plenary sessions. A full list of possible session topics can be found on the website (see below). The plenary sessions will be concluded on Friday afternoon.

Topics

The following (non-exclusive, preliminary) topics have been anticipated to be addressed:

  • Policy developments and stakeholders perspectives
    • US, EU, other developments in policy, regulation and management.
  • Effects of sound on marine life
    • Hearing sensitivity, TTS-effects and physiology
    • Studies on captive animals
    • Controlled exposure experiments (CEE) or Behaviour response studies (BRS) in the field
    • Stress response of animals exposed to sound
    • Population-level and ecosystem level effects (PCOD and other)
  • Technical/tool developments
    • Tag development
    • Assessment and mitigation software
    • Sources and sound propagation
    • Prey field measurements and/or analysis
  • Monitoring and mitigation
    • Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) / Detection, classification and localization (DCL) and tracking
    • Population estimation
  • Dissemination of knowledge

Abstract submission Abstract submission is open

Abstracts will be made available digitally for participants to ESOMM-2024, which will also be posted on the website one week before the meeting. After the meeting all presentations will be made available to participants. Similar to the 2014 and 2018 ESOMM meetings, a peer-reviewed special issue for ESOMM-2024 may be published in Aquatic Mammals. We aim to have this issued by end of 2025, with a deadline for submission of manuscripts by the end of 2024.

Extended deadline: Abstract submission is now open until the 1st of April 2024 the 15th of April 2024

Submit abstract »

Social programme

Details of the social programme will be announced later. The following activities are anticipated:

  • An informal "get-together" at the Carlton Beach hotel on Sunday evening with the possibility for early registration from 17:00 to 19:00.
  • On Monday afternoon all participants are invited to join us at a reception in the hotel.
  • On Wednesday morning we plan to offer different outdoor activities.
  • On Thursday evening a conference dinner will be scheduled

Important dates

01 April 15 April: Closure of Abstract submission

30 May: Notification of Abstract acceptance (talk/poster), preliminary programme

10 June: Closure of early bird registration

4 July: Draft programme

15 July: Closure of regular registration

8-13 Sep: ESOMM-2024

  • Sun 8 Sep: Get together at Carlton Beach hotel and pre-registration (1700-1900)
  • Mon 9 Sep: Start of plenary programme; connecting stakeholders
  • Tue 10 – Fri 13 Sep: Plenary sessions continued

Accommodation

Venue

The ESOMM-2024 meeting will be held at the Carlton Beach hotel in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Carlton Beach hotel is located in the traditional fishing community Scheveningen, which is by now part of The Hague. At this location, overlooking the North Sea and nearby offshore wind farms, meeting facilities are available this week.

Reservations for the hotel with special rates can be made with the following link:

Reservations Carlton Beach

Please note that we are very happy that the hotel did a great offer with very attractive rates for ESOMM. Compared with last meeting in 2018, all rooms have been upgraded. We recommend everybody to make the reservation timely, because there is limited capacity. Also note that the reservation can be canceled free of charge up to to 7 days before arrival, so better be safe than sorry.

The address of the venue is Carlton Beach hotel, Gevers Deynootweg 201, The Hague.

Staying in The Hague

The Hague is the political capital (“residence”) of The Netherlands. All ministries and most embassies are located in this city. It has many well-known attractions, like e.g. the Mauritshuis next to the Parliament building. At a later stage we will post more detailed information about The Hague and Scheveningen.

See also the tourist centre's website: This is the Hague

Getting there

We encourage all participants from abroad to make use of public transport. The train station at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is located below the arrival halls. A direct train connection to The Hague Central Station leaves about every 15 minutes, and this takes about 30 minutes. See www.ns.nl/en for train schedules. From there you can take a tram or taxi to your accommodation. The end stop of trams 1 and 9 stops opposite the Carlton Beach hotel.

Details on local travel will follow soon.

If you plan to use a (rental) car, please be advised that parking in Scheveningen can be difficult and expensive. For this reason, renting of a car is not encouraged. Instead, consider renting a bike to explore Scheveningen and The Hague. Also be aware of the many bicycles around when walking around.