The Awful Racket Of Fish

By Richard On April 19, 2008

The New York Times ran a great feature last week:

“What’s Making That Awful Racket? Surprisingly, It May Be Fish“

Steven Senne/Associated Press

Mating calls of the black drum can carry through sea walls and into homes. Click here to listen to the sounds of the black drum and other fish. Don’t miss the Interactive Feature

The article by Noony de la Pena covers the story of James Locascio, a doctoral student in Marine Science at the University of South Florida, who rescued the city of Cape Coral, Fl. from financial folly. Here’s an excerpt:

“Eerie Thumps Haunt Some Cape Residents,” a headline in The News-Press of Cape Coral, Fla., said. “Noise May Cost City Big Bucks.”

The retirees who had come to spend their winters relaxing on the gentle estuaries and canals of the Gulf Coast in Florida blamed the municipal utility system. They were pushing the City Council to pay an engineering firm more than $47,000 to eliminate the noise reverberating through their homes.

It was the end of January 2005, during the spawning season for a fish appropriately called the black drum. Nightly mating calls were at a crescendo. But no one living in the area seemed to realize the din was of aquatic origin.

The full post is at the New York Times, here.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

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Tagged with: ocean • oceanography

About The Author

Richard

Captain Richard Rodriguez is a US Coast Guard approved instructor based in the San Juan Islands, Washington. Also a Rescue Tug Captain, Richard's posts on his blog "Bitterend" feature Vessel Assist calls that include live tracking of his vessel.