When Fish Roar, Scientists Listen

Researchers measure mating sounds to estimate population of at-risk fish.

By Alexandra HartJune 13, 2017 10:57 am

If you click on the audio player above, you’ll hear a sound. It’s a sound which, in real life, can become so loud as to be destructive to human ears — louder than standing 10 feet from a jet engine’s intake.

The sound could be the key to saving an entire fish species, and maybe several, if Dr. Brad Erisman’s experiments pan out. Erisman is a marine biologist with the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. He is using audio technology to measure the population of an at-risk species – the gulf corvina.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– Why the gulf corvina are at risk of overfishing

– How scientists are using sound to measure the population of gulf corvina

– Whether the technique may work for other, quieter fish as well

Written by Taylor Jackson Buchanan.