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When you think about how fish communicate with each other, it might conjure little more than a watery silence, punctuated by the odd bubble.
In reality, however, "the oceans are alive with sound", says Aaron Rice, a researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca in New York. Clicks, grunts, plops and screeches are just some of the sounds fish use to signal to those around them underwater. Some, such as toadfish, sing beautiful songs to each other, and others, such as herring, communicate using their digestive tracts – more on this later. They use these signals for a variety of reasons: to warn off competitors, sound the alarm and even to woo potential mates. |
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Clues that fish are chattier than we might have given them credit for have floated around since the 4th Century, from the works of Aristotle to whispers from traditional fishing communities, says Rice. But our ability to eavesdrop on fish has been limited by the devices used to record underwater. (Read more about why scientists are eavesdropping on the ocean in this article by Katherine Latham.) |
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