Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea: Past, Present and Future Perspectives

In the Mediterranean Sea, Passive Acoustic Monitoring of fishes has been carried out since 2002. Studies have shown that the same species can be monitored over wide geographical and temporal scales thanks to the consistency of its acoustic signature, which can also be used to identify cryptic species that would otherwise remain undetected. The monitoring of single species vocalizations in presence of boat noise has provided information about the strategies which fish might use for coping with the ever-increasing level of human-generated noise. The monitoring of whole vocal fish communities has provided high resolution information on fish taxonomic diversity and dynamics. Finally, recent investigations have started to shed light on the possibility of extending the monitoring of vocal fish populations to deep-sea environments. Past and present studies are discussed at the light of future perspectives for fostering the monitoring of vocal fish populations in our rapidly changing seas.