Southern Ocean Network of Acoustics (SONA)

Southern ocean processes are intimately linked to some of the most pressing challenges faced by society today: climate change, ocean acidification and the sustainable management of marine resources. To address these challenges we need to improve our understanding of the natural causes and consequences of Southern Ocean change. Sustained observations, which can only be large enough and maintained through international collaboration, will enable us to measure the baseline and future trends in the distribution and function of the ecosystem. The Southern Ocean Network of Acoustics (SONA) represents a group of scientific institutes and industrial partners who have united to measure an under-sampled component of the ecosystem – the mid-trophic level, to agree common standards and protocols for data collection and processing with a view to provide that data on an open access basis.