Inside The Surprising Social Networks of Fish (Yes, Fish) - Copy-1

4/10/2021 Inside the surprising social networks of fish (yes, fish) |
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Inside the surprising social networks of fish

(yes, fish)
Oct 15, 2020 / Mike Gil PhD
Mike Gil
Every day, corporations like Facebook, Amazon and Google learn more and
more about human behavior by collecting incredible volumes of data —
what’s called Big Data — on our social behavior. They use it to learn things like
how our behavior is influenced by the behavior of other individuals in our social
network.
But what if we could do the same thing with animals in nature?
https://ideas.ted.com/inside-the-surprising-social-networks-of-fish-yes-fish/?utm_content=2021-1-25&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campa… 1/9
What if we could carefully measure the precise behavior of many different

animals, all at once, in a specific environment, over long stretches of space and
time? Could we use those measurements to generate algorithms that predict what
wild animals do so we can sell advertisements to them understand their role
within the ecosystem?
These are the questions that my team and I have been working on for nearly seven
years. I’m a marine biologist (and a TED Fellow), and I research coral reefs in
French Polynesia, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. I got into this line of
investigation after spending hundreds of hours underwater, watching reef fish
and thinking: “There’s more to these animals than we realize!”
Billions of people across the planet depend on coral reefs for food, jobs and
coastal protection, with reefs supplying an estimated $375 billion USD
annually to the global economy. But due to human-driven environmental
changes, chief among them climate change, pollution and overharvesting, coral
reefs all over the world are threatened. Our best chance of sustaining them, and
our natural ecosystems in general, is by understanding how they function in the

face of human demands.
That’s where algorithms come in.
My team and I don’t just collect Big Data on how animals behave in the wild;
we use these data to build computer simulations of natural environments.
By using math and code — much like building a video game — we’re able to
carefully observe how entire ecosystems grow and respond to changes in the
environment that we can easily simulate. While it can be difficult for us, as
humans, to observe the dynamics of nature directly, since many natural
ecosystems move on timescales spanning decades and even centuries, centuries
can be simulated on a computer with a single click.
Conventional wisdom has said: Because animal behavior occurs extremely

rapidly, relative to how ecosystems grow and change over time, behavior doesn’t
really make a difference in the long run, right?
But what we’ve discovered through our simulations challenges that

thinking. We found that wild animals, like humans, are heavily influenced by
their social networks, and their individual decisions can end up shaping their
ecosystems.
Starting in 2013, my team and I designed massive, jungle gym-like structures

equipped with an array of video cameras to spy on coral reefs in French Polynesia.
These odd contraptions allowed us to monitor every fish in an area about the size
of two parking spaces throughout the day. With the help of AI, we could measure
not only exactly what each fish did but also exactly what each fish could see in
any given moment.
This granted us the unique ability to study the previously unknown social
lives of reef fish. Among the most prevalent species we recorded in French
Polynesia were parrotfish, surgeonfish, wrasses and Moorish idols.
These fish, it turns out, are more like humans than we thought. They are
interconnected through strong links of social influence, and even the actions of
different species can shape each individual’s decisions.
For example, reef fish use each other as indicators of when and where it’s
safe to go out and eat. Much like humans might go to a restaurant to get dinner,
see that it’s empty upon arrival, and then change plans, the reef fish we studied
would see open areas of reef with few or no fish and would be more likely to avoid
these locations. This behavior likely hinges on risk perception, rather than
expectations of bad food: the risk of getting eaten by a predator, like a shark, can
be much higher when fewer fish are around.
But there’s more: We found that fish social networks can amplify the damage that
humans do to fish populations and the overall ecosystem; when we measured
how social fish in our simulated ecosystem responded to fishing, the effects were
felt much more strongly.
As it turns out, fishing doesn’t just remove fish from a particular

environment, it removes their social influence too. The remaining fish eat less
because they have a reduced social network — and, thus, less information about
when and where it’s safe to eat. And there’s a kicker. The fish species we study eat
algae that, when left unchecked, kill coral. So when the fish population collapses,
along with the information supply of the remaining fish, so does the wellbeing of
the corals and the entire ecosystem they support.
In our simulations, we also observed how the coral reef responded to the speed at
which fishing changed. Specifically, a rapid increase in fishing can cause the
ecosystem to collapse in just a matter of years. But the ecosystem could withstand
the same increase indefinitely when it was spread out over the course of several
years, in the absence of climate change.
Coral reef fish are not the only wild animals for which researchers have
gathered evidence of strong social feeding behavior. We’ve also seen this in
mixed-species herds of wildebeest, zebra, giraffes and gazelle, for example. And,
of course, coral reefs are far from the only ecosystem that’s being threatened by
human-driven environmental damage, including climate change. Indeed, the
pace at which the climate is changing is predicted to increase if we humans don’t
start modifying our ways. Ocean warming due to human-caused climate change
has already caused widespread coral bleaching and death in reefs around the
world.
What our findings suggest is that the pace at which humans change our natural
ecosystems — and not just the magnitude of that change — can determine
whether these environments will ultimately survive. And to me, this is hopeful
news. I’ve been in love with coral reefs ever since I first swam in one at the age of
19 and was awestruck by what I experienced. I believe that by slowing down our
environmental changes as much as we can, we could save coral reefs for future
generations of humans to fall in love with. All we need to do is remember to — as
Jack Johnson and Paul Simon put it — “slow down … You’re moving too fast.”
All images and GIFs: Courtesy of Mike Gil.
Watch his TED Talk here:
Mike Gil
Could fish social networks help us save coral reefs?
Watch this video to learn more about how he studies the behavior of fish in coral
reefs:
Confessions of a Marine Biologist: Inventing the Fear Frame |…

|…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Gil PhD is a marine biologist, TED Fellow and National Geographic Explorer, who has led
field research around the world. His studies are linked by a common goal: To leverage whatever
tools are needed to discover how nature works, so that we can preserve natural ecosystems that
support our way of life. Gil is also an award-winning science communicator who directs
SciAll.org, which uses personal videos that invite the public to get to know scientists and what
makes them tick.
climate change coral reefs fish marine biology marine life mike gil science
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4/10/2021 Inside the surprising social networks of ﬁsh (yes, ﬁsh) |

Inside the surprising social networks of ﬁsh

But what if we could do the same thing with animals in nature?

What if we could carefully measure the precise behavior of many different

our natural ecosystems in general, is by understanding how they function in the

That’s where algorithms come in.

Conventional wisdom has said: Because animal behavior occurs extremely

But what we’ve discovered through our simulations challenges that

Starting in 2013, my team and I designed massive, jungle gym-like structures

As it turns out, fishing doesn’t just remove fish from a particular

All images and GIFs: Courtesy of Mike Gil.

Watch his TED Talk here:

Confessions of a Marine Biologist: Inventing the Fear Frame |…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FRESH IDEAS IN YOUR INBOX

TED TALK OF THE DAY

TED Talks Usage Policy

© TED Conferences, LLC

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