Maui Nui Marine Resource Council hosts free in-person talk ‘Sonic Youth: Calling baby coral home’ on July 10

The Maui Nui Marine Resource Council will host the July edition of its “Know Your Ocean Speaker Series” featuring Nadège Aoki, on Wednesday, July 10 at 6 p.m. at the Sphere Theater at the Maui Ocean Center.

In her talk, Aoki will present her work showing that settlement rates of Caribbean coral species can be increased by replaying healthy reef sounds on degraded reefs using underwater speakers. Coral settlement is the process by which coral larvae attach and begin to grow on the reef. Understanding how coral larvae respond to sensory cues in their environment is critical to predicting and potentially improving settlement rates on reefs in declining health.

In addition to results from the US Virgin Islands, Nadège will share ongoing work in Maui with local partners (Maui Ocean Center, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Hawaii’s Division of Aquatic Resources and The Nature Conservancy) that are testing the impacts of different sound treatments on several species of Hawaiian coral.

Aoki is currently completing her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University and previously worked for the National Science Foundation and studied deep-sea polychaete worms at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Nadège’s dissertation research focuses on understanding the ecological role of underwater sound on coral reefs, particularly the impact of sound cues on early life stages of corals, and developing methods for using soundscape recordings to monitor reef health.

Limited seats are available. Admission is free and can be completed at https://bit.ly/KYO24NA.