Sing Like Fish
About This Book
For centuries people assumed the ocean was a silent world, taking it for granted that what we could not perceive did not exist. Marine scientists now have the technology to record and study the sounds of the sea. They can follow how sound travels with currents, bounces off the seafloor and surface, and bends with temperature and even saltiness. They can also see how sound helps marine life survive and how human noise is reshaping whole ecosystems. In Sing Like Fish, award-winning science journalist Amorina Kingdon combines historical discoveries with the latest research to portray this sonic undersea world. Her subjects include the plainfin midshipman, whose swim-bladder drumming is loud enough to keep houseboat residents awake, and the syntax of whalesong. She also covers the crackle of snapping shrimp and the noise of underwater earthquakes and volcanoes. Sound matters for feeding, mating, parenting, navigating and warning, even among animals no one suspected of using it. Meanwhile, human activity fills the water with noise. Motorboats, cruise ships, oil tankers and container ships all add to it, navies use sonar, and prospectors use seismic imaging to hunt for oil and gas beneath the seabed. Scientists are only beginning to understand how this din can mask mating calls, drive animals away from food and injure creatures from plankton to lobsters. The book tells a complete story of ocean animals' underwater sounds, imagines a quieter future, and offers a new understanding of the world beneath the surface.
ISBN: 9780593442791
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