I just spent about a half hour being mesmerized by this video from the BBC Earth YouTube channel. The video is actually 10 hours long, but you can start it and end it at any point and find yourself in coral reef heaven. It is footage of some of the most beautiful reefs on the planet, all teeming with brightly colored fish.
The visuals are a treat in and of themselves, but the best part, in my opinion, is the natural sound. A healthy coral reef is full of clicks, pops, purrs, crackles, grunts, the whoosh of waves and the flutter of schools of fish. It definitely has ASMR elements to it. If I could find a way to project this video on my bedroom wall, I’d never have a sleepless night again.
There’s something comforting about the sights and sounds of a healthy reef. It gives me the feeling of all being right with the world. It’s calming. It’s relaxing. It allows me to stop grinding my thoughts into a fine powder. It takes me away. I’m not alone in loving these things. Healthy reefs are home to ¼ of the ocean’s wildlife.
Sadly, because people have been too selfish to put a stop to, or even slow down, the global warming that we ourselves created, coral reefs worldwide are rapidly declining. When I look at the footage above and think about these habitats being lost, it amazes me that the entire planet isn’t outraged and taking action.
There is one tiny point of light in the future of coral, though. Scientists have long known that chemical and light cues can influence where coral larvae decide to settle in preparation for their sedentary adulthood, but until recently, they haven’t taken into account the sounds of a healthy reef.
According to this article, the good folks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted experiments in the Virgin Islands, and their paper that explains their methodology and results was recently published. You can read the article for full details of how the experiment was conducted, but suffice it to say that a dead reef is a quiet reef. But if you transmit the sounds of a healthy reef in that area, you can convince as many as 7 times as many larvae to choose that place to put down roots, so to speak. Urban renewal, ocean addition.
The best part about these findings is that transmitting those sounds in an effort to restore a reef is relatively inexpensive to do, as compared with trying to influence the chemistry and light cues in an area. A potential way to have a positive impact on the planet and we won’t have to spend a lot of money? Yes, please.
Meanwhile, I’m going to dive back into that video. If I don’t come up for air in the next 10 hours, send out a search party. But even then I’ll probably not want to be disturbed.
Dear Reader, please know that I don’t think that this one solution will restore all reefs to their former glory. Water temperature and chemical imbalances still play a huge part. We have much to do. But it’s a really promising start.
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