This fish has sex so loud it can deafen dolphins, scientists say
‘These spawning events are among the loudest wildlife events found on planet Earth’
A species of Mexican fish amasses in reproductive orgies so loud they can deafen other sea animals, awed scientists said Wednesday, calling for preservation of the “spectacle” threatened by overfishing.
An individual spawning Gulf corvina, said the research team, utters a mating call resembling “a really loud machine gun”, with multiple, rapid sound pulses.
And when hundreds of thousands of fish get together to spawn once a year, “the collective chorus sounds like a crowd cheering at a stadium or perhaps a really loud beehive,” said study co-author Timothy Rowell from the University of San Diego.
“The sound levels generated by chorusing is loud enough to cause at least temporary if not permanent hearing loss in marine mammals that were observed preying on the fish,” he said.
Rowell and colleague Brad Erisman of the University of Texas used specialised underwater sound gear to eavesdrop on spawning Gulf corvina, a popular eating fish of the croaker family.
Each spring, all adults of the species migrate to a single site – the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico’s Gulf of California – for what scientists call a “spawning aggregation” that can number into the low millions.
The frenzy sees all the world’s adult corvinas gathered in less than one per cent of their usual home range for a few weeks.