Learning about fish sounds will help scientists understand, preserve and restore habitat drowned by noise from ships and boats
Fish, it turns out, are a chatty lot. They communicate about everything from what area of the sea has the best food to where predators might be hiding and, of course, their desire for a mate.
Now, researchers from universities in Canada, the United States and Brazil have put together an online portal called FishSounds that lets people sift through an inventory of sea creature noises. People can listen to the underwater recordings and learn that a sablefish emits a rasp, while the orange-lined triggerfish makes a drumroll sound.
Sarah Vela, senior data manager with a Dalhousie University marine environmental research group and lead developer of the portal, said Fish Sounds provides researchers with information about whether a fish species makes noise along with its geographical range.
fish game kit"It's a data set that hasn't really existed before. Whereas there's lots of projects out there that are working with killer whale noises … right whale noises," she said. "Fish is one that's understudied.
