Playing sea soundscapes can summon thousands of baby oysters – and help regrow oyster reefs
Playing sea soundscapes can summon thousands of baby oysters – and help regrow oyster reefs
“Even seemingly simple creatures such as marine larvae use sight, smell and sound as navigational cues. Once we understand these cues, we can use them to help nature recover faster than it would on its own.
In our new research, we amplified the natural sounds of the sea through underwater speakers. We were testing if sound cues would draw baby oysters to swim to the locations where we are trying to regrow oyster reefs. It worked better than we’d hoped. Many thousands more larvae swam to our locations than control areas and settled on the bare rocks.”