Studies of soniferous fishes (vocal behavior of fish)

Studies on Soniferous Fishes

Did you know that fishes make sounds? In fact, over 150 species on the East Coast of the U.S. can vocalize. And that's likely to be a vast underestimate, because few scientists have attempted to study fish sounds in our temperate coastal waters. Worldwide an estimated 800 species produce biological sounds; again a vast underestimate. I am particularly interested in research on the potential use of fish sounds in fisheries management and marine ecology. The use of Passive Acoustics (i.e., listening devices as opposed to "Active Acoustics" that use sound signals generated by machines to obtain biological/environmental information) has a lot of potential for future studies. See my outline of these applications (Below) for more information. This page provides a brief introduction to my current research activities in this area, including downloadable files of fish sounds. It also contains links to the sounds of many species of fish, some of which I have recorded, and others from historical data.

Table of contents Click on the highlights to learn more.

NEW!! Listening to Fish: New Discoveries in ScienceI have writen an e-book on passive acoustics for kids grades 5-12 and interested adults. The book describes passive acoustics and its applications to fisheries and the exploration of the seas. It includes some audio and video clips. Thanks to all my colleagues for their input!

NEW!! Sounds from Gilligan's Island! During a brief visit to Hawaii and the famed Gilligan's Island, I took the opportunity to conduct a little test survey. The data is not quantifiable, but provides an example of how one might begin a low budget survey in a new area. However, as fortune has it, I was able to record the underwater sounds of the marine Bufo marinus for the first time. In fact, underwater sounds may not have previously been recorded for any toad species (although several frog species have been recorded).

NEW!! First survey of the underwater soundscape in New England rivers. In the spring 2008, I will begin a newly funded pilot project to survey the underwater acoustic soundscape of four major river systems in New England.

Soniferous fishes on Stellwagen Bank.

This page describes our ongoing study of the Soniferous fishes of Stellwagen Bank funded by the NE-NURC Program.

Soniferous fishes on the Fishing grounds of New England.

Describes preliminary findings from an on going study by Cliff Goudey, Ken Enkstrom (MIT Sea Grant) and myself in cooperation with commercial fishermen to record underwater sounds of fishes on the fishing grounds of Casco Bay, Jefferies Ledge and Stellwagen Banks. So far we have identified the spawning calls of haddock and recorded other unidentified fish sounds (and of course whale sounds). We are currently working to quantify the daily pattern of haddock calling frequency to determine haddock daily spawning patterns.

Soniferous fishes of the Hudson River.

Pilot study of the soniferous fishes of the Hudson River conducted by undergraduate student Katie Anderson, under supervision of myself and Francis Juanes of UMASS Amherst. Samples were collected in July, August and September from NYC with collaboration of The River Project and from the Tivoli Bay NERR site with collaboration of NERR staff. This is an exciting project that has recorded many unidentified underwater sounds, including several probably never before recorded sounds. We have posted many examples here in hopes of getting colleagues and experts from around the world to help us identify them.

Sounds of NW Atlantic Fishes

I am keenly interested in facilitating collaborations to rescue and archive for wide distribution historical sound recordings of marine fishes and invertebrates. Towards this end I am currently working with a network of scientists to establish a National Archive of Fish Sounds in the Library of Natural Sounds at Cornell University. This work also involves on going efforts to rescue historical data on fish sounds. Besides summarizing these efforts, this page provides sound clips for 17 fish species. My colleagues and I have produced a CD containing the sounds of 153 fishes as originally published by Fish and Mowbray in their landmark book "Sounds of Western North Atlantic Fishes: A Reference File of Underwater Biological Sounds" published in 1970.

My Gallery of underwater sounds.

Striped cusk-eel, Ophidion marginatum.

I am currently conducting field studies of the soniferous behavior and reproductive ecology of the striped cusk-eel, Ophidion marginatum, to complement a laboratory study made by myself and Jeanette Bowers-Altman some time ago. Recently I have recorded cusk-eels in Cape Cod and New Bedford Harbors in MA.

NEW!! I have redigitized some cuskeel movie clips.

Miscellaneous field studies

This page describes on going pilot field studies of soniferous fishes in various localities, including New Jersey, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Narragansett Sound, RI, and Florida (see also, links under Stellwagen Bank and cusk-eel studies)

Future of passive acoustics research.

Outline of some of the uses of passive acoustics in fisheries science and marine and aquatic ecology, including monitoring of fish/invertebrate calling activity as a tool for the study of temporal and spatial habitat use patterns. Potential of passive acoustic fish monitoring techniques for the study of inter- and intra-specific behavioral interactions among marine fishes and invertebrates. I'm also excited about the potential for collaborations to develop regional inshore and offshore fish "Listening Posts" that can be accessed via the internet by scientists and the general public. I believe these applications will become an important tool for the census of marine life in estuarine, coastal and open marine ecosystems, as well as in freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Click on the links below to find out more:

Potential applications of passive acoustics to fisheries and aquatic ecology

Funding and research priorities for passive applications to fisheries"

International Workshop on passive acoustics applications to fisheries (http://seagrant.mit.edu/cfer/acoustics/index.html).

Rountree, R.A., R.G. Gilmore, C.A. Goudey, A.D. Hawkins, J. Luczkovich, and D. Mann. 2006. Listening to Fish: applications of passive acoustics to fisheries science. Fisheries 31(9):433-446. download pdf file

Rountree, R.A., C. Goudey, T. Hawkins, J. Luczkovich and D. Mann. 2003. Listening to Fish: Passive Acoustic Applications in Marine Fisheries. Sea Grant Digital Oceans. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant College Program. MITSG 0301. 36 p. Available as pdf online

Rountree, R.A., C. Goudey, and T. Hawkins. Editors. 2003. Listening to Fish: Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Applications of Passive Acoustics to Fisheries. April 8-10, 2002. Dedham, MA. MIT Sea Grant Technical Report MITSG 03-2. Available as pdf

Rountree, R.A., P.J. Perkins, R.D. Kenney, and K.R. Hinga. 2002. Sounds of Western North Atlantic Fishes: Data rescue. Bioacoustics 12(2/3):242-244.

Listening to Fish: New Discoveries in ScienceAvailable as a pdf file

Directory of scientists interested in the ecology of soniferous fishes

I'm currently working with Dr. Joseph J. Luczkovich (ECU) to create a directory of scientists interested in the study of soniferous fishes. This web page provides an early draft. If you would like to be listed on this directory please contact me and provide me with appropriate information. (Note, this directory is badly outdated at this time). Joe and Dr. Mark Sprague maintain an excellent web page on soniferous fish studies in North Carolina. Information on recent research programs using passive acoustics can be found in the Research Programs section of the Passive Acoustics Workshop web page: (http://seagrant.mit.edu/cfer/acoustics/researchpro.html).

NEW!! Links to other web pages I've set up a links page to fish passive acoustics research sites of other researchers. I also include web pages with galleries of fish sounds and some on general bioacoustics and whale acoustics. Links to hydrophone and acoustic software companies are also included.

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This page was last modified on 18 October, 2008