Understanding marine soundscapes has been a focus of the Leigh Marine Laboratory’s researchers’ for over half a century. It initially began with recording the diurnal sounds of sea urchin (kina) munching that revealed a distinct dusk chorus as kina increased their feeding activity as night approached. Fast forward to the present day and Professor Craig Radford and Rochelle Constantine and their research teams have used sound recordings to evaluate communication strategies in fishes, marine mammals and invertebrates, measure ecosystem health and even reduce whale-strike from large vessels. There is still much to learn about underwater acoustics and soundscapes, a realm that was once considered to be a silent world!

The SOTS programme has been made possible due to the mahi of our amazing partners who share our kaupapa of increasing ocean literacy through the vehicle of exploring and understanding underwater sound.