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Science Quickly

Fishy Trick Lures Life Back to Coral Reefs

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2019

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Playing the sounds of a healthy reef near damaged corals may help bring the fish community back. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcot.co.j.j.p. That's y-A-K-U-L-T-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacol.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.2

Colorful corals may be the stars of the reef, but they can't thrive without a huge supporting cast.

0:45.1

The fish perform a load of really important roles on a coral reef.

0:48.9

Tim Gordon, a marine biologist at the University of Exeter.

0:51.7

He says some fish graze on seaweed, clearing space for new corals,

0:56.2

others control whole food chains. But when reefs are bleached or damaged, the fish flee, and the reef

1:01.7

suffers. So how do you get them back? Well, one trick may be to play them the sounds of a healthy,

1:07.6

vibrant reef.

1:22.5

Gordon and his colleagues played that symphony of snapping shrimp and whooping, hammering, croaking fish on underwater speakers for six weeks at a test reef built off the coast of Australia.

1:28.3

And at the end of the trial, twice as many fish were living at that vibrant sounding reef, compared to identically

1:32.9

built reefs outfitted with dummy speakers or no speakers at all. So fish from every level of the food

1:38.8

chain. So herbivores and planktivores and omnivores and even predatory piscivores, we're all being attracted by this sand.

1:46.5

The details are in the journal Nature Communications.

1:49.5

But even though it worked, isn't it sort of false advertising?

1:53.5

Yeah, in a way it is, kind of.

1:55.6

So it's important that we think quite carefully about how we would use this in conservation practices.

2:01.1

So this will only be useful if you're bringing fish into somewhere that it's worth bringing them to.

...

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