Meeting Abstract

79.3  Friday, Jan. 7  Hawaiian Reef Fish Cocktail Parties: Look Who is Talking ! TRICAS, T.C.*; BOYLE, K.S.; Hawaii Inst of Marine Biology and Univ. Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu; Hawaii Inst of Marine Biology and Univ. Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu tricas@hawaii.edu

Regular surveys of coral reef fish populations are important for effective management and conservation, but traditional methods of direct observation at remote sites are labor intensive, time constrained and expensive. In situ monitoring of fish acoustic behavior provides an automated technique to collect sounds produced by local fish species within a community over long time periods. We have deployed remote acoustic recorders on shallow reefs on the island of Hawaii that provide a rich source of fish sounds sampled hourly over a period of > 2 yrs. However, the species identities of most fish that produce the sounds are unknown. We used closed circuit rebreather diving, which produces almost no acoustic noise and allows close approach to wild fish, to record video and sonic behaviors of fish at the acoustic recorder sites. From the videos we have identified with a high degree of confidence 45 sonic species many of which produce multiple sounds associated with intra and interspecific aggression, feeding, courtship and spawning. Cross correlation analysis of sound waveforms in the time domain and multivariate analysis of spectral features in the frequency domain show broad overlap within and among species, and also unique sounds that represent narrower acoustic clades. Acoustic waveform templates were selected from different species and used to screen the long-term acoustic recordings. The use of species-specific sound templates confirms the potential to detect diel, lunar and longer-term rhythmicity of acoustic activity for several species. This technique also shows promise for characterizing seasonal and annual periods of activity of sounds associated with context-specific behaviors.