Wed, Aug 17, 2022: 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
ESA Exhibit Hall
Background/Question/MethodsSound production in fishes is vital to an array of behaviors including territorial defense, reproduction,and competitive feeding. Unfortunately, recent passive acoustic monitoring efforts are revealingthe extent to which anthropogenic forces are altering aquatic soundscapes. Despite the importance offish sounds, extensive endeavors to document them, and the anthropogenic threats they face, the field offish bioacoustics has been historically constrained by the lack of an easily accessible and comprehensiveinventory of known soniferous fishes, as is available for other taxa. To create such an inventorywhile simultaneously assessing the geographic and taxonomic prevalence of soniferous fish diversity, weextracted information from 834 references from the years 1874–2020
Results/ConclusionsWe determined that 989 fish species from 133 families and 33 orders have been shown to produce active (i.e., intentional) sounds. Active fish sound production is geographically and taxonomically widespread—though not homogenous—among fishes, contributing a cacophony of biological sounds to the prevailing soundscape globally. Our inventory supports previous findings on the prevalence of actively soniferous fishes, while allowing novel species-level assessments of their distribution among regions and taxa. Furthermore, we evaluate commercial and management applications with passive acoustic monitoring, highlight the underrepresentation of research on passive (i.e., incidental) fish sounds in the literature, and quantify the limitations of current methodologies employed to examine fishes for sound production. Collectively, our review expands on previous studies while providing the foundation needed to examine the 96% of fish species that still lack published examinations of sound production.
Results/ConclusionsWe determined that 989 fish species from 133 families and 33 orders have been shown to produce active (i.e., intentional) sounds. Active fish sound production is geographically and taxonomically widespread—though not homogenous—among fishes, contributing a cacophony of biological sounds to the prevailing soundscape globally. Our inventory supports previous findings on the prevalence of actively soniferous fishes, while allowing novel species-level assessments of their distribution among regions and taxa. Furthermore, we evaluate commercial and management applications with passive acoustic monitoring, highlight the underrepresentation of research on passive (i.e., incidental) fish sounds in the literature, and quantify the limitations of current methodologies employed to examine fishes for sound production. Collectively, our review expands on previous studies while providing the foundation needed to examine the 96% of fish species that still lack published examinations of sound production.