The Sound of (Reef) Music
In the fight to save corals, the solution may lie in sound.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) associate scientist Aran Mooney learned that some rainforest researchers turned to studying noise to determine the health of these threatened environments. He hypothesized a similar connection between sound and the health of reefs.
Reefs are every bit as rich as rainforests when it comes to sound. Any diver who has descended on a reef has heard snapping shrimp tightening their claws to deter predators, parrotfish scraping their beak-like fused teeth across corals and possibly even a grouper grunting.