After a week in Maui it is time to head back to Boston. Somewhat annoyingly, just as the weather has started to improve in Hawaii it has deteriorating considerably on the east coast. Such is winter weather.
Despite the very poor forecast and relatively poor reality of Maui's weather this past week, some good work was possible. Recorders at four reefs were recovered, representing around half of all of the data that we hope to collect. Additionally, recorders at three reefs were redeployed, which will allow us to gain insights into acoustic variability on reefs on the timescales of months to potentially a year.
My biggest disappointment this week was that we were not ultimately able to use a stand up paddleboard to retrieve one of our recorders. Perhaps we will be luckier next time - indeed, much remains to be done. Fortunately, we will be returning to Maui in March to complete this work and carry out some additional experiments on acoustic propagation, or how far the reef sound travels away from the reef. That is an important feature of reef sound, because while many larval animals may use sound to locate and orient to reefs, the distances over which this may occur are relatively unknown.
Max Kaplan
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