A Tub Gurnard - Photo by wwarby
Scientists are doing research on the language of fish! Shahriman Ghazali, a researcher in New Zealand, started listening to the sounds made by fish two years ago. He isolated different species and listened to them with a microphone. It turns out some of them, like the Gurnard, a winged fish in the north of New Zealand, make grunting noises that change throughout the day. Other nocturnal fish (the Bigeye) made popping sounds that Ghazali compared to morse code and were used for a variety of potential reasons: “It was possible they made sounds in response to divers approaching, and that other fish used sound for functions including communicating and orienting themselves around reefs.”
But then I read this quote from Ghazali: “Goldfish have excellent hearing, but excellent hearing doesn’t associate with vocalization – they don’t make any sound whatsoever.” And now I’m sad.
