Sound Ocean Science Foundation

Years

2022-present

Partners

Thriving Islands

Towards the goal of using passive acoustics to monitor biodiversity and ecosystem health, there is a need for more extensive fish sound libraries. An estimated 96% of fish sounds remain undescribed, and existing characterizations are often based on single observations, instruments, or locations. Moreover, while machine learning and AI-based approaches are emerging to automate soundscape analyses, their utility is constrained until more fish sounds are reliably identified and catalogued, especially in underrepresented regions. Expanding sound libraries requires more replicated field observations, even for species already described. ​

​

This project uses “bubble-less” observation approaches (since SCUBA diving creates a lot of noise). Our methods are designed to improve fish sound documentation in understudied tropical coastal habitats, often opportunistically recording fish while free-diving or deploying a simple GoPro-hydrophone setup for several hours at a time to capture fish behaviours and associated sounds. We will continue to contribute to fish sound libraries as we document more species.​