Herring and their
mysterious 'FRT'ing sound
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Herring are well
known to most. Their economic importance to the fishing communities
of the temperate northern Hemispheres is in no doubt and as
a result much of their biology has been well documented. We
know they have excellent hearing but little about what they
actually use it for..........
It turns out that
herring make unusual sounds at night. With colleagues (Larry
Dill and Bob Batty) I've been working to find out how how and
why they produce these sounds. The intial work was carried out
at the Bamfield Marine Sciences
Centre on Vancouver Island, Canada.
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Current ideas for the use of this
sound include:
- Contact calls at night
- Anti-predator tactics
- Incidental results of buoyancy compensation
- However, this is
an unsolved mystery so other ideas (or donations) are most welcome
!!
Have a listen: herring_sound.wav
(130KB) or read what Dave Barry had to say on the matter - "It's
windy under the sea"
Reference:
Wilson, B, Batty R & Dill LM 2003 Pacific and Atlantic herring
produce burst pulse sounds. Biology Letters (The Royal Society,
London DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0107) Download
the PDF
By splendid
coincidence another group of researchers have been independently working
on the same issue. Their findings are published in the following:
Wahlberg M. & Westerberg H. (2003). Sounds produced by herring
(Clupea harengus) bubble release. Aquatic Living Resources.
16: 27-275.
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We are delighted
that our work has been awarded the 2004 Ig Nobel prize
for Biology. Full details are available here |
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