Mote-ivational Science Lecture – Listening to Goliath Grouper: How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping Us Listen to the Ocean

A goliath grouper can reach 800 pounds, and it announces itself with low-frequency booms made with its swim bladder and surrounding muscles. Dr. James Locascio, who manages Mote's Fisheries Habitat Ecology and Acoustics program, has built a career on recording such fish sounds. His Mote-ivational lecture on Mote's City Island campus covers how artificial intelligence is helping sort through the ocean's noise. Research he co-authored with Florida Atlantic University scientists used an automated detector to find and pinpoint grouper calls around an artificial reef in the Gulf. The listening has practical stakes: his survey of six spawning sites off Jupiter found fewer fish at all but one, just as Florida reopened a limited harvest after a 32-year moratorium.