Fish and other underwater sounds

This page provides links to most of the sound files scattered throughout my web page for those that just want to listen to the sounds without wading through the various web pages.

Follow thumbnail links below to listen to samples of sounds recorded on Jefferies Ledge and Stellwagen Bank

Haddock call slide1.htm	Haddock spawning call slide3.htm	Reference Haddock sounds slide13.htm	Unidentified fish sound 1 slide5.htm
Unidentified fish sound 2 slide7.htm	Seismic survey slide9.htm	Seismic survey and haddock slide11.htm	underwater call of harbor seal slide15.htm
Fin whale slide17.htm

Sounds of the Hudson River at the River Project

Known and unknown fish sounds

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Known fish

cuskeel and dock sounds.htm
***Cool! Cusk-eel

Toadfish and boat sounds.htm
***Cool! toadfish

Fish Grunts

ui_06_fishsounds_grunt_type_a.htm ***Cool! Grunt A	ui_23_grunt_type c.htm Grunt C	ui22_fish_gruntingorfeeding.htm Grunting or feeding?
	ui13_fish_grunts_and_sonar.htm ***Cool! Grunts and sonar

Fish Honks

(All honks COOl!)

ui_2_honk type a.htm
Honk type A

ui_31_honk type b.htm
Honk type B

ui35_fish_honk_type c.htm
Honk type C

Fish Groans

ui17_groan_type_a.htm
Groan A

ui17_groan_type_a_2nd.htm
Groan A

ui33_fish_groan_type b.htm
Groan B

Other Fish Sounds

Other fish sounds

ui14_fish_grunts (thumps)_haddock_like.htm ***Cool! Thumps	ui_08_burp.htm ***Cool! Burps	ui_2_and_ui39_honks_and_unknownnoise.htm Honks and unknown
ui_26_fishsound_possible_toadfishvarient.htm ***Cool! toadfish variant?	ui_1_drumming.htm Drumming	mixed sounds toadfish_honk_unknown_water.htm mixed sounds

Unknown sounds

thought to be of biological origin

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Note, Most labels are descriptive and do not imply identification unless otherwise noted.

ui34_squeals.htm ***Cool! Squeals	ui24_grunts_ui17_groana.htm Grunts and Unknown 17	ui42_fish_grunts(clicks)_cuskeel_likeboat.htm Unknown #42	ui_04_birddolphin.htm Bird-like
ui11_chirp_groans.htm Chirps	ui05_pigeonlikesounds.htm ***Way cool! Is it a bird or fish?	ui29_puffer_like.htm Puffer-like	ui27_rattle_like_clicks.htm ***Cool! Rattle-like
ui_09_diel_clicksandclucks.htm "Clicks and clucks"	ui_10_duck-like.htm "duck-like	ui_10_groan and toadfish.htm Duck-like	ui_10_duck-like_and_screech.htm ***Cool! Duck-like
ui_18_diel_tapping noise.htm Tapping	ui_36_alarm_like.htm ***Way cool! Alarm-like	ui_37_alarm_like_and_clicks.htm ***Cool! Alarm-like	ui_38_fish thumps and ui36.htm thumps and Alarm-like
ui_20_birdlike_tf_burp.htm "bird-like, toadfish, burp"	ui_12_sonar_like_biological.htm ***Way cool! "Sonar-like"

Unknown sounds

thought to be of non-biological origin

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Note, Most labels are descriptive and do not imply identification unless otherwise noted.

Known sounds

piersounds.htm
Pier creaking

wakesounds.htm
***Cool! boat wake

Unknown sounds

ui16_fishfartlike.htm ***Cool! Unknown #16	ui_3_brakelikenoise.htm "truck-breaking"	ui40_highpitched_noise.htm Unknown #40
ui21_highpitchedreelingsound.htm "Unknown #21"	ui21_rapidclicks_ui20_birdlike.htm Unknown #20 & 21	ui_16_possiblemechanical.htm Unknown #16

Sounds of the Hudson River in the Tivoli Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Unknown fish and other under water sounds

recorded in the Hudson River at Tivoli Bay National Estuarine

Research Reserve

Presummed fish sounds

fishsound_ui 02t_t13r64c3.htm Fish sound #2	fishsound_purring_ui 08t_t43r61c1.htm ***Cool "Purring"	fishsound_staccato_ui 16t_t14r64c1.htm ***Cool "Staccato"
fishsound_ui 09t_t43r61c2.htm ***Cool Grunt train	fishgrunts_ui_9t_t2r63c3.htm Grunting	fishgrunts_type b_ui_9t_t7r63c1.htm Grunting
fishsound_75hz_ui 01t_t20r61c1.htm ***Cool 75 Hz Unk #1 & 3	fishsound_75hz_ui 03t_t20r61c1.htm 75 Hz Unk #1 & 3	boat sounds and ui fish_t12r63c1.htm 75 Hz unknown with boat
ui 14t_t12r64c4_barking.htm Barking	ui 05t_t44r61c3_clapping.htm "clapping"	fishsound_gulping_ui 02t_t42r61c1.htm "Gulping"
fishfeeding_tivoli_t44r61c4.htm Fish feeding sounds?	ui 15t_t13r64c2_feeding.htm "Fish feeding sounds?"

Unknown underwater sounds

ui 03t_t43r61c1_birdlike.htm Bird-like	ui 04t_t44r61c2_birdlike.htm bird-like	ui 07t_t42r61c3_clicktrain.htm ***Cool click train
ui 06t_t44r61c5_reeling.htm "reeling sound"	ui_10t_t2r63c2.htm ***Cool "Unknown #10"	ui 11t_t12r64c1.htm "unknown #11"
ui 12t_ui9t_t12r64c2.htm "Unknown #12"	ui 13t_t12r64c3.htm "Unknown #13"

Sounds from the Fish and Mowbray archive at URI

Note, all fish sketches illustrated below, except where indicated, are courtesy of the NMFS/NEFSC in Woods Hole, MA.

Galeichthys (=Arius) felis, Sea catfish. Sample 1 (3,908 KB) - Fish caught on hook-and-line in Florida and South Carolina, bandpass filter 1200 Hz. Snapping shrimp and toadfish in the background. Sample2 (4,379 KB) - Percolator sounds attributed to Arius felis, 10 June 1965, Charleston, SC. Bandpass filter 100 to 2400 Hz.

Melanogrammus aeglefinus, haddock. This species was not included in Fish and Mowbray 1970, but was found in their archives. These sound clips were taken from a recording made by Tom Halavik, NMFS/NEFSC in Narragansett, RI in the early 1970's. Sample 1 (3,378 KB) - Drumming sounds. Sample 2 (1,944 KB) - Low rumble resulting from increasing frequency of drumming during courtship.

Ophidion marginatum, striped cusk-eel. Sample 1 (4,065 KB) - Recorded in Delaware Bay. B. chysura and O. tau calls in the background. Note, this sound was incorrectly attributed to the weakfish, Cynoscion regalis. This is an error. We now know that this "chatter" or "jack-hammer" sound is made by the cusk-eel (Mann et al. 1997), see also Cusk-eel pages.

Holocentrus adscensionis, squirrelfish. Sample 1 (2,024 KB) - Recorded at Bimini.

Epinephelus adscensionis, rock hind. Sample 1 (3,758 KB) - Sounds from 3 specimens recorded at Bimini. 1200 Hz low pass filter.

Caranx hippos, crevalle jack. Sample 1 (5,069 KB) - Sounds from 6 individuals at Gloucester, VA 1962.

Conodon nobilis, barred grunt. (drawing courtesy FishBase). Sample 1 (2,266 KB) - Two specimens recorded at Puerto Rico in 1956.

Cynoscion regalis, weakfish. Sample 1 (3,926) - Eight specimens in tanks in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Cynoscion jamaicensis, Mongolar drummer (Jamaica weakfish). (Drawing courtesy of FishBase). Sample 1 (2,168 KB) .

Bairdiella chrysura, silver perch. Sample 1 (3,203 KB) - Recorded on hook-n-line in North Carolina. Sample 2 (2,611 KB) - Recorded in wooden tanks at the Narragansett Marine Laboratory.

Micropogon undulatus, Atlantic croaker. Samp1e 1 (4,067 KB) - Recorded in Maryland and Virginia during 1962.

Pogonias cromis, Black drum. Sample 1 (3,158 KB) - Two females recorded in North Carolina. Sample 2 (2,340 KB) - Recorded in North Carolina, attributed to females.

Prionotus evolans, striped searobin. Sample 1 (3,990 KB) - Recorded at Narragansett, RI.

Myoxocephalus octodecimspinosus, Longhorn sculpin. Sample 1 (4,130 KB) - Recorded in aquaria at Narragansett, RI.

Lactophrys quadricornis, scrawled cowfish. Sample 1 (2,105 KB) - Recorded in Puerto Rico.

Sphaeroides maculatus, northern puffer. Sample 1 (1,261 KB) - Recorded in Maryland 1962.

Opsanus tau, Oyster toadfish. Sample 1 (2,519 KB) - Recorded in Maryland 1962. Sample 2 (2,187) - Boat Whistle sound recorded in Narragansett Bay, RI during June. 1200 Hz low pass filter.

Misc field recordings

1). I recorded striped searobin, Prionotus evolans, around the Cotuit town docks on several different occasions.

(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)

On 11 September I caught an approximately 15-cm individual while fishing from the docks. I placed it in a fish basket near the hydrophone and recorded its sounds while repeatedly raising and lowering the basket to establish proof of the caller's identity. Click here for a short sound clip.

Short video clip from the same location on September 30, 2000. Click on thumbnail.

Spontaneous sounds of the striped searobin, Prionotus evolans from Cotuit docks.

3). Cusk-eel calls recorded from Provincetown harbor in August. See cusk-eel page.

Aquarium photo of a small striped cusk-eel, Ophidion marginatum, collected at the Cotuit town dock following a recording session.

A. Here are a few examples of an unidentified fish call that I have heard frequently in several estuarine habitat types in New Jersey during trial recordings in the late summer and fall of 2000.

First example. Recorded from Great Bay New Jersey on August 5, 2000 from small boat in 1.5.

Second example. Two more examples of the same call recorded a short time later at the same location.

Third example. Similar calls were heard frequently from Little Sheepshead Cr. On September 6, 2000. Fishers were fishing for weakfish using strong floodlights powered by portable generators. They were catching weakfish, bluefish and hickory shad. The unidentified sounds were more frequent when hickory shad were being caught. I had a fisherman hold a hooked fish near the hydrophone for a few moments and recorded several of the croaks, of which this is one example. However, it could just be coincidence that I recorded these sounds at that time, as I had been hearing them periodically all night (though not for several minutes before and after this incident).

B. Two other types of unidentified sounds that may be fish calls. These were recorded during the late afternoon from Little Sheepshead Creek Bridge in Tuckerton, NJ on 28 September 2000.

1). Load thumps. Unknown?.

2). Chicken cackling. Unknown???

C. I recorded some weakfish, Cynoscion regalis, sounds at night on the docks at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station in Tuckerton, NJ on September 28, 2000. Here is a clip of a train of thumps made by a weakfish as it attacked a school of silversides, Menidia menidia, aggregated under the dock lights. If you listen carefully you can here me say "Whoa!" when I heard the sound and saw the fish flash. The fish I saw was about 3-5 lbs., but I can't be certain it was not an age-1 bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix, since they were also periodically feeding on the silversides.

(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)

Recordings of the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, recorded as above. Below is an illustration of the nearly identical northern Oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau (see the archive section for recordings of O. tau, I will add in my own at a later date.).

(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)

Sounds of cusk-eels recorded in the laboratory in August 1989. Sounds were recorded in air with a conventional tape recorder.

4) Sounds of cusk-eels recorded from the field in Great Bay estuary of southern New Jersey during August 2000.

Cusk-eels were recorded in numerous locations on Cape Cod during 2001.

Example from Provincetown harbor

Aquarium photo of specimen captured at Cotuit Town Landing after a recording session when a loud chorus of cusk-eels were heard just after sunset.

This page was last modified on 16 April 2005

Follow thumbnail links below to listen to samples of sounds recorded on Jefferies Ledge and Stellwagen Bank

Known and unknown fish sounds recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project Pier 26, New York City

Known fish

Fish Grunts

Fish Honks

Fish Groans

Other fish sounds

Unknown sounds thought to be of biological origin recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project Pier 26, New York City

Unknown sounds thought to be of non-biological origin recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project Pier 26, New York City

Known sounds

Unknown sounds

Unknown fish and other under water sounds recorded in the Hudson River at Tivoli Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Presummed fish sounds

Unknown underwater sounds

Sounds from the Fish and Mowbray archive at URI

Misc field recordings

Known and unknown fish sounds

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Unknown sounds

thought to be of biological origin

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Unknown sounds

thought to be of non-biological origin

recorded in the Hudson River at The River Project

Pier 26, New York City

Unknown fish and other under water sounds

recorded in the Hudson River at Tivoli Bay National Estuarine

Research Reserve