Off the coast of Australia, something miraculous happened.
In a degraded coral reef—one that had lost much of its color, life, and vibrancy—scientists placed underwater speakers and played the soundscape of a thriving reef: the soft crackle of snapping shrimp, the ambient hum of ocean life, and the chattering calls of fish navigating the coral corridors.
And life responded.
A study published in Royal Society Open Science revealed that these soundscapes can double the settlement rates of coral larvae on damaged reefs compared to control sites without sound¹. In other words, sound alone helped bring a dying ecosystem back to life.
Let’s pause and let that sink in.
The reef wasn’t visually restored. The coral wasn’t replanted. Nothing was manually rebuilt.
It was heard.
Over half of the world’s coral reefs have already been lost, and scientists estimate that up to 90% could disappear by 2050 if current warming trends and pollution levels continue². Coral bleaching, overfishing, rising ocean acidity, and sedimentation have left once-thriving ecosystems silent and barren.
When reefs degrade, they don’t just lose their visual brilliance—they go quiet. Healthy reefs are noisy places. They buzz with life. But damaged reefs lose that sonic signal, making it harder for fish and coral larvae to find their way back.
This is where the power of acoustic enrichment comes in.
Coral larvae are microscopic drifters. After being released into the ocean, they float for days or weeks searching for a suitable place to settle and grow.
They don’t have eyes or maps. But they do have the ability to hear.
Research shows that coral larvae are attracted to low-frequency sounds typical of a bustling reef. These audio cues help them identify a healthy environment where they’re more likely to survive and thrive³. Playing these sounds essentially tricks them into thinking the degraded reef is still a good home.
In the 2019 study led by marine biologists at the University of Exeter and James Cook University, scientists placed underwater loudspeakers at six degraded reef patches over 40 days. The results were dramatic:
It wasn’t restoration in the traditional sense.
It was resonance.
If sound can bring coral back to barren reefs, what might this teach us about the energy we put into our own ecosystems?
We often think of branding as visual—logos, websites, colors. But branding, like life, is vibrational. It’s frequency. It’s how something feels even before it’s fully understood.
A silent brand, like a dying reef, struggles to attract. It may still exist, but it doesn’t resonate.
What if your brand’s message—its story, its tone, its presence—is the sound that draws people toward it?
What if the energy you project magnetizes your people, your team, your audience—just like sound draws life back to coral?
At Saije Studio, we don’t just design things to look good. We design them to feel good. To echo. To carry energy. To resonate.
This study is a powerful reminder that:
The reef came back not because it was rebuilt, but because it was heard.
Let that be the frequency your brand aims for: not just seen, but felt. Not just existing, but alive.
¹ Gordon, T. A. C., Harding, H. R., Wong, K. E., Merchant, N. D., Meekan, M. G., McCormick, M. I., Radford, A. N., & Simpson, S. D. (2019). Acoustic enrichment can enhance fish community development on degraded coral reef habitat. Royal Society Open Science, 6(6), 190241. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190241
² IPCC (2022). Sixth Assessment Report – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
³ Vermeij, M. J. A., Marhaver, K. L., Huijbers, C. M., Nagelkerken, I., & Simpson, S. D. (2010). Coral larvae move toward reef sounds. PLOS ONE, 5(5), e10660. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010660
