Abstract: A personal watercraft has an air intake silencer integral with the seat base. Ambient air is drawn into the seat base and exits the seat base into an engine compartment intake tube which delivers the intake air to an engine compartment. The level of engine noise propagating through the air intake path to the ambient environment is reduced by the acoustic silencer within the seat base. The seat base preferably comprises one or more expansion chambers in series, although other types of silencers such as quarter wavelength resonators and Helmholtz resonators are possible. Additional high frequency sound can be attenuated by placing acoustically absorptive material in the seat base, or by allowing the seat cushion to be exposed to the sound. In the preferred design, an air intake port into the seat base and an air supply port from the seat base to the engine compartment are located towards the aft of the watercraft, and rearward of the acoustic silencer.