One can hear the coral reefs dying

According to a new research you can hear the sound of former bustling coral reefs dying due to the impact of human activities. Scientists have found that coral reefs impacted by human activity, such as overfishing, are much quieter than protected reefs, which can have a big impact on the fish and invertebrates which rely on the reefs for survival.The research found that the noise produced by the few remaining resident fish and crustaceans on unprotected reefs was only one third of the sound produced at bustling, healthy reef communities. In an environment where underwater noise plays such an important role in the population dynamics of coral reefs, it is alarming to find such a large effect of human impact on the natural acoustic environment. We still know very little about what sounds these animals are listening to and it is likely to be very different between species. Combined with recent findings that fish dislike the smell of impacted reefs (another homing cue used by the larvae), there is a real need to understand how human impacts can indirectly affect the success of future generations of reef organisms.