Abstract
Coral reefs have distinctive soundscapes consisting primarily of reef associated fish, with most sounds resulting from various behaviors of said species. Ecotourism, particularly through snorkeling in coral reefs, can affect behavior in fish, therefore potentially altering the soundscape. Four different reefs across the western coast of Hawai‘i were assessed both acoustically and visually through periodical deployment of a HydroMoth and a GoPro. Reefs were selected based on the amount of snorkelers present, ranging from none to high (over 16 visually identifed). Recordings were analyzed in RavenPro and VLC Media Player to identify species, create a count of instances of biophony, and a count of instances of anthrophony. Results indicated that the sites with higher amounts of anthrophony instances correlated with a higher amount of snorkelers present, but there were no correlations between amount of biophony and presence of snorkelers. This research serves as an exploratory study and aims to lay the groundwork for future research with interest in the correlations between snorkeler presence and reef soundscape by describing potential patterns observed and identifying common reef associated fish sounds.
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