Both marine mammals and hydroacoustic instruments use underwater sound to communicate, navigate or infer information about the marine environment. Concurrent timing of acoustic activity or the use of similar frequency regimes may result in (potentially mutual) masking of acoustic signals when both sources are within reception range. In analogy to landscape planning, the concept of marine soundscape planning aims to reconcile potentially competing uses of acoustic space by managing the anthropogenic sound sources. We here present a conceptual framework exploring the potential of soundscape planning in reducing (mutual) acoustic interference between hydroacoustic instrumentation and marine mammals. The basis of this framework is formed by the various mechanisms by which acoustic niche formation occurs in species-rich communities that acoustically coexist while maintaining high fidelity (hi-fi) soundscapes, i.e., by acoustically partitioning the environment on the basis of time, space, frequency and signal structure. Hydroacoustic measurements often exhibit certain flexibility in their timing, signal characteristics and even instrument positioning, offering the opportunity to minimize the underwater acoustic imprint. We evaluate how the principle of acoustic niches could contribute to reduce potential (mutual) acoustic interference based on actual acoustic data from three recording locations in polar oceans.