A compaction model is developed to describe the compressional wave velocity as a function of depth near the seafloor in marine sediments. The model assumes that the porosity decreases with increasing depth of overburden and approaches a limiting value in the first few hundred meters. The limiting value is estimated from sonobuoy data applicable to the deeper sediments where further compaction is negligible compared to age‐dependent effects. Available consolidation data from the western North Atlantic are used in the model to predict the velocity profile, which is in good agreement with hydrophone‐pinger data.