Autonomous cameras reveal larval reef fish responses to acoustic enrichment and lunar phase
Acoustic enrichment (AE)-the playback of ambient sound from healthy coral reefs-shows promise in attracting fish larvae to degraded or artificial reefs, but previous evaluations have used invasive diver-based sampling techniques, limiting most studies to short deployments in benign and accessible environments. This study used fully autonomous cameras to non-invasively evaluate AE efficacy in attracting settlement-stage fish larvae and mature fish over large fractions of a lunar cycle. We deployed an AE system in Kāne'ohe Bay (O'ahu, Hawai'i) over three spawning events (August 2023, June-July 2024). Treatment (active speaker) and control (inactive speaker) sites were built by placing artificial structures, autonomous cameras, and hydrophones on a sandy seabed at 5 m water depth, with sites separated by 42-65 m. Treatment and control designations were alternated between deployments to remove potential spatial bias. Manual and semi-automated image analysis found larval counts at both sites peaking around the new moon, but the treatment site attracted 4-14 times more larvae. Both sites encountered similar numbers of mature fish. These results demonstrate that autonomous camera systems can non-invasively study fish larval presence and provide further support that AE can enhance larval fish response.
Authors
- Van Wishingrad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6256-4018)
- Kelsey Maloney
- Sid Verma
- Josh Hancock
- S. Kundu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7337-436X)
- Daniel Wangpraseurt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4834-8981)
- Mert Gökdepe
- Zhenhua Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6665-7230)
- Claire Bardin
- Jon Chase
- Kristian McDonald
- Crawford Drury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8853-416X)
- Hendrikje Jorissen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5715-3281)
- Stefan Kolle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2024-9690)
- Océane Boulais (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3443-3632)
- Natalie Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3890-9271)
- Charlotte White
- Lindsey Badder
- Carlo Caruso
- Joshua Levy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2250-9049)
- Daniel Schär
- Brady Halvorson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8440-549X)
- Alejandro Alvaro
- Alex LeBon
- C. L. S. Lewis
- John Yeh
- William Hicks
- Aricia Argyris
- Mark Aruda
- Ayrton Medina-Rodriguez
- Marion Chapeau
- Joshua Kualani
- Richard Argall
- Ian Robertson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5655-0080)
- Shannon Dixon
- Aaron A. Thode (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3052-9592)
- Nina MD Schiettekatte
- Mollie Asbury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0254-6571)
- Andrea Grottoli
- Corinne Pickering
- Tyler Maldonado
- G Chen
- Ben Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2692-7443)
- Josh Voss
- Christopher Suchocki
- Madeleine Hardt
- Josh Madin
- Kira Hughes
- Sean Mahaffey
- Jessica Reichert
- Jessica Haver
- Christopher Jury
- Robert Toonen
- Allison Klein
- Anna Mikkelsen
- Kevin Chun
- Erik Franklin
- Cami Dillon
Institutions
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- University of Hawaii System (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Makai Ocean Engineering (United States) (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Florida Atlantic University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2026-06-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-57857-9
- Primary Topic
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Advanced Research Projects Agency