‘A great silence is spreading over the natural world’

English: Callyspongia sp. (Tube sponge) attracting cardinal fishes, golden sweepers and wrasses. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the pristine coral reef waters of Fiji, he picks up a raucous mix of sighs, beats, glissandos, cries, groans, tones, grunts, beats and clicks.

The water pulsates with the sound of creatures vying for acoustic bandwidth. He hears crustaceans, parrot fish, anemones, wrasses, sharks, shrimps, puffers and surgeonfish. Some gnash their teeth, others use their bladders or tails to make sound. Sea anemones grunt and belch. Every creature on the reef makes its own sound.

But half a mile away, where the same reef is badly damaged, he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp. It is, he says, the desolate sound of extinction.

To read the full article – click here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/03/bernie-krause-natural-world-recordings

Edited by Henricus Peters, NAEE Co-Chair and Learn From Nature

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