Did you know that fish sing? Just like birds, they use sounds for courtship and other communication. These sounds can provide a useful tool to monitor large aggregations of fish that supplements other more field intensive monitoring approaches such as visual surveys. Exciting new research exploring this behavior was recently published from our team of scientists with the Grouper Moon Project. The study, published in the journal Ecological Applications last month, looked at best practices for using hydrophones (aka underwater microphones) and AI to monitor the choruses of aggregating grouper. The authors evaluated trends in the detection of aggregation-associated sounds (AAS) made by Nassau Grouper using an array of six hydrophones deployed across the large Nassau Grouper spawning aggregation on Little Cayman, Cayman Islands. The hydrophones collected continuous data for nine days during a winter spawning season. The findings of the study suggest hydrophone placement can strongly influence AAS detection rates. Given the unpredicable movement and behavior of aggregating fish at spawning sites , the authors recommend that hydrophone arrays be of sufficient size to capture the site-wide trends in AAS rates.
Visit the REEF Publications page at www.REEF.org/db/publications to read the full study online and to see a full listing of all scientific papers that have used REEF data and programs. To learn more about the Grouper Moon Project, visit www.REEF.org/programs/grouper-moon-project.
The Grouper Moon Project is a partnership between REEF and the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, in collaboration with The Semmens Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Oregon Statue University Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences.