Deciphering complex coral reef soundscapes with spatial audio and 360° video

Coral reef soundscapes hold a wealth of biodiversity information. While they are easy to record, they are difficult to decipher because we know little about which sounds are made by which species. With identified fish sounds, acoustic monitoring can directly inform biodiversity metrics, detect indicator or invasive species, identify behavioral events, and estimate abundance at temporal and spatial scales that are impossible with methods like eDNA or visual surveys. The missing link, knowing which sounds come from which species, is exceedingly difficult to establish with fish, especially on a species-rich coral reef. Using a novel method to visualize in situ underwater sound, we have developed a technique that combines visualizations of spatial audio with concentric 360° video recordings, a combination not previously accomplished underwater. Using this technique, we have identified and assigned sounds to 46 species. This is the most extensive collection of natural sounds of fishes ever published. This data repository contains all of the recordings referenced in our manuscript. These are exported as data specimens. Each data specimen contains video from the camera with an overlay of the sound field visualization and a spectrogram visualization of the sound. Each video also contains a synchronous audio channel. In total, there are 156 media specimens from 46 species.