Music “soothes the savage beast” we’ve been known to say. As far back as 1697, when the prominent English playwright William Congreve wrote in “The Mourning Bride” – “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak”, we still use the distilled version of his words to this day. The beauty and power of sound can calm even the wildest mind and… it got me thinking.
I stumbled upon another bit of happy news shared by Sam Bentley, a climate activist who shares good news stories that give us hope for our challenged planet. Coral reefs are in danger; we’ve known this for decades having lost over half of the world’s coral cover since the 1950s. Coral reefs are the most biodiverse habitats on the planet, and 25 percent of them have vanished over the last thirty years and many more are at the brink of death. I tuned into Sam Bentley’s you-tube briefing about an effort to restore coral reefs with the use of sound.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered that “healthy coral reefs are full of sound from all the wonderful marine life [within] them. These sounds attract young fish and coral larvae,” reports Sam. Damaged reefs are silent, so scientists put two and two together and recorded the sounds found in healthy reefs and played the sound back to those reefs in real crisis. As a result, fish and coral larvae returned to those reefs experiencing stress, and magic happened; the idea worked. Coral settlement rates were 70 percent higher with the use of healthy coral reef sounds. This undertaking accelerates the recovery of reefs and saves those facing imminent death. Talk about thinking outside the box.
It should come as no surprise that sound plays an active role in the health of the oceans when it clearly plays an active role in the health of every living being – trees and oceans included. Sound is a mechanical wave, one that can move through many mediums like air, water, and solids. Sound is the transfer of energy. Sound waves that reach the inner ear are then converted into a signal(s) that the brain can interpret. My aunt who was born without an auditory nerve and therefore deaf, could not hear the specific sound that was carried in said vibrations, but she could feel them. She was an excellent dancer and loved to dance, giving herself a moment to pick up the beat from “feeling” the music. She often placed her smiling face against the piano while my mother played. Sound was vitally important to my aunt, but in a different form to those of us who can hear. Diana Para Perez, PhD, a researcher and facilitator for mindfulness at Washington University Prevention Research Center, tells us that sound is “not only perceived through the ear, but also by the body through vibrations from sound waves that travel through the air” or other medium.
It is standard practice now to place newborn babies on their mother’s chest immediately following birth, with skin touching skin. The touching part is significant, but feeling their mother’s heartbeat, the physical sensation of the mechanical waves, one which this newborn has listened to during its development, is essential to the stressful transition to life outside the womb.
We know that music and sound have the power to help those who are dealing with emotional and/or physical stress. Certain sounds can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for allowing the body to find a more relaxed state. Stress hormones are reduced, creating a sense of calm, providing for relaxation and digestion, helping to return the body to a state of balance and recovery with a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure as well as a decrease in the release of cortisol (stress hormone). The parasympathetic nervous system is the dancing partner of the sympathetic nervous system which we rely on to provide us with the “fight or flight” response, both being essential to our well-being.
WHOI isn’t the only organization striving to save our oceans, but they are the ones who are supporting this creative outreach. WHOI was founded in 1930, “joining a thriving ocean science community in the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.” Their vision was the bringing together of experts from many fields to find the answers to questions related to the planet’s oceans. Further to the WHOI’s scientific research and technical innovation, they have embraced education as a significant part of their mission, providing experience and opportunities for undergrads since 1955. The goal of all its members is playing a role “in understanding the ocean and its role in shaping and sustaining the planet.” Thank you, Sam Bentley, for sharing this happy and hopeful news.
wendistewart@live.ca
