[OANNES Foro] Fish recorded singing dawn chorus on reefs

[Mario Cabrejos]

Fish recorded singing dawn chorus on reefs just like birds

By Greta Keenan 

21 September 2016

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106331-fish-recorded-singing-dawn-chor
us-on-reefs-just-like-birds/?cmpid=NLC%7CNSNS%7C2016-2909-newGLOBAL
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106331-fish-recorded-singing-dawn-cho
rus-on-reefs-just-like-birds/?cmpid=NLC%7CNSNS%7C2016-2909-newGLOBAL&utm_med
ium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS> &utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS


 


Bat fish sing from the same song sheet

Bat fish ballad Norbert Probst/Getty

 

The ocean might seem like a quiet place, but listen carefully and you might
just hear the sounds of the fish choir.

Most of this underwater music comes from
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2104958-this-fish-has-a-love-song-and-
it-sounds-like-a-windshield-wiper/> soloist fish, repeating the same calls
over and over. But when the calls of different fish overlap, they form a
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527533-500-oceanology-undersea-daw
n-chorus-off-english-coast/> chorus.

 

Robert McCauley and colleagues at Curtin University in Perth, Australia,
recorded vocal fish in the coastal waters off Port Headland in Western
Australia over an 18-month period, and identified seven distinct fish
choruses, happening at dawn and at dusk. You can listen to three of them
here:

Audio Player

00:00

00:00

 <javascript:void(0);> Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease
volume.

 

 

The low "foghorn" call is made by the Black Jewfish (Protonibea diacanthus)
while the grunting call that researcher Miles Parsons compares to the
"buzzer in the Operation board game" comes from a species of Terapontid. The
third chorus is a quieter batfish that makes a "ba-ba-ba" call.

 

"I've been listening to fish
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16622334-900-squawk-burble-and-pop/>
squawks, burble and pops for nearly 30 years now, and they still amaze me
with their variety," says McCauley, who led the research.

 

Sound plays an important role in various fish behaviours such as
reproduction, feeding and territorial disputes. Nocturnal predatory fish use
calls to stay together to hunt, while fish that are active during the day
use sound to defend their territory. "You get the dusk and dawn choruses
like you would with the birds in the forest," says Steve Simpson, a marine
biologist at the University of Exeter, UK.

The recordings were captured by two sea-noise loggers: the first positioned
near the Port Headland shore and the second 21.5 kilometres away in offshore
waters.

"This is a method that allows us to understand what's happening at Port
Headland 24/7 for a year and a half," says Simpson. "I don't know any scuba
diver that can stay down there that long!"

Listening to choruses over a long period of time allows scientists to
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/sounds-of-the-sea/> monitor fish and
their ecosystems, particularly in low visibility waters, such as those off
Port Headland.

 

"We are only just beginning to appreciate the complexity involved and still
have only a crude idea of what is going on in the undersea acoustic
environment," says McCauley.

Journal reference: Bioacoustics, DOI:
<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09524622.2016.1227940?ai=mv7m0>
10.1080/09524622.2016.1227940

 



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