Unique songs of reef fish presented at Blue Carbon exhibition

An exhibition called Blue Carbon at the old PWD complex in Panjim (India) presents songs that do not sound on land or even at great depth. This sound is made by tiny reef fish, and it was recorded by a marine biologist from Goa, Vardhan Pathankar, who has been diving since 2005, Azernews reports.

The researcher recorded the sounds demonstrated on Grand Island and St. George Island in Goa by placing a hydrophone in a natural system. The demo is the only recording of its kind in India.

"Reef fish are intelligent creatures that make extremely loud signals or sounds when mating, but at a very low frequency of 10 Hertz, which is below the capabilities of human hearing," says Patankar.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between artists Kaldi Moss, Waylon D'Souza and curators Ravi Agarwal and Janavi Phalka from the Bangalore Science Gallery. The desire to combine science with art to create fascinating and interactive works becomes apparent as soon as a person enters the room. The main exhibit is a large mural depicting a seascape with anemones and corals, which D'Souza created together with 36 artists from Goa.

The purpose of the exhibition, which is part of the Serendipity Arts Festival, is to draw visitors' attention to a relatively new aspect of the climate crisis – the role played by marine ecosystems in removing carbon from the atmosphere.

"Due to the changing nature of scientific research and its distance from everyday life, it is urgently necessary to make cutting–edge research public," says Phalki. – Carbon has become the currency of the climate change dialogue with terms such as "carbon sequestration", "carbon sinks" and "carbon credits". We thought that instead of talking about climate change, let's talk about carbon. Let's look at this from the very beginning of life on the planet to firmly establish the complexity of the issue. Carbon is not a villain. The problem is an excess of carbon dioxide. We live on a blue planet, and all this water is constantly trapping carbon. In fact, the idea of the exhibition is to spread information about the magic that environmental phenomena are," adds the curator.