I have been conducting passive acoustic monitoring studies for more than 20 years. Unfortunately I have not had time to document
most of this work on my web page. This page is a brief mention of some of the projects. To date I have auditioned over 100 species of fishes
and recorded sounds from at least 60 of them, many new to science.
Examples of species auditioned or recorded during these studies can be viewed at:
Other pages describe sounds from my recordings in
North and South Carolina,
Florida, and the Amazon.
Finally, a complete current list of all species I have examined to date, complete with sound examples can be found on my
Rountree's Fish Sound Library web page.
Other pages describe larger passive acoustics monitoring projects (go back to the main Soniferous Fish page).
Below find some brief descriptions of some of my early efforts, archived from twenty years ago.
Soniferous fishes of Cape Cod.
I've made lots of recordings on Cape cod over the years. These are some of my earliest efforts. One of the early findings was that striped cusk-eels,
Ophidion marginatum, are very abundant in Cape Cod estuaries and coastal waters (see cusk-eel page).
The following are some recordings I made during the late summer and fall 2000 during early sampling trials.
1). I recorded striped searobin, Prionotusevolans, around the Cotuit town docks on several different occasions.
(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)
On 11 September I caught an approximately 15-cm individual while fishing from the docks. I placed it in a fish basket near the hydrophone and recorded its sounds
while repeatedly raising and lowering the basket to establish proof of the caller's identity. Click here for a short sound clip.
Short video clip from the same location on September 30, 2000. Click on thumbnail. At the time
I did not realize it, but this is an example of a rare time when I recorded video confirmation of fish sounds. If you listen carfully you will hear the "cluck" sounds of
the searobin as it swims around the chum can.
2). (Click on thumbnail to download clip). Video of scup, Stenotomus chrysops,
black sea bass, Centropristis striata, and a large tautog, Tautoga onitis, taken shortly after the above searobin clip on September 30, 2000.
In the first few seconds you will see a scup pulling bait from a chum can. You can also hear it tear the bait out and chew on it. The load splash you hear is my
fishing line hitting the water (You can easily hear fishing lines hit the water from several hundred feet away. Even in very noisy conditions.) Next you will see
two small black sea bass feeding on scrapes left by the scup. One of the black sea bass leaves while one stays behind trying to get more food from the can (he is on
the bottom near the left end of the chum can). The second sea bass darts away rapidly when disturbed by an unknown sound. Did you spot the tautog yet? Believe it or not,
a large tautog is in the field of view during the entire clip! He is siting on the left side of the screen facing the chum can. His head is larger than the height of
the can (4-5 inches). You can see him move away in response to the unknown sound at the same time as the black sea bass. I had seen this clip six or seven times before
I noticed it, even then I thought it was a fish "ghost". I'm using a camera equipped with IR lights so the camera does not disturb the fish. Under these conditions, the
tautog is extremely well camouflaged!
Field results in 2001
1). Poster presented 14 August 2001 at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Cape Cod describing sounds of some of the vocal fishes in the area.
2). Spontaneous sounds of the striped searobin, Prionotus evolans from Cotuit docks.
Aquarium photo of a small striped cusk-eel, Ophidion marginatum, collected at the Cotuit town dock
following a recording session.
Soniferous fishes of Great Bay, New Jersey
A. Here are a few examples of an unidentified fish call that I have heard frequently in several estuarine habitat types in New Jersey during trial recordings in the late summer and fall of 2000.
First example. Recorded from Great Bay New Jersey on August 5, 2000 from small boat in 1.5.
Second example. Two more examples of the same call recorded a short time later at the same location.
Third example. Similar calls were heard frequently from Little Sheepshead Cr. On September 6, 2000. Fishers were fishing for weakfish using strong floodlights powered by portable generators. They were catching weakfish, bluefish and hickory shad. The unidentified sounds were more frequent when hickory shad were being caught. I had a fisherman hold a hooked fish near the hydrophone for a few moments and recorded several of the croaks, of which this is one example. However, it could just be coincidence that I recorded these sounds at that time, as I had been hearing them periodically all night (though not for several minutes before and after this incident).
B. Two other types of unidentified sounds that may be fish calls. These were recorded during the late afternoon from Little Sheepshead Creek Bridge in Tuckerton, NJ on 28 September 2000.
I recorded some weakfish, Cynoscion regalis, sounds at night on the docks at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station in Tuckerton, NJ on September 28, 2000. Here is a clip of a train of thumps made by a weakfish as it attacked a school of silversides, Menidia menidia, aggregated under the dock lights. If you listen carefully you can here me say "Whoa!" when I heard the sound and saw the fish flash. The fish I saw was about 3-5 lbs., but I can't be certain it was not an age-1 bluefish, Pomatomussaltatrix, since they were also periodically feeding on the silversides.
(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)
Florida Keys
A. Recordings made from docks at a hotel on Conch Key, including some nice video/audio of rainbow parrotfish feeding.
B. Recordings of the gulf toadfish, Opsanus beta, recorded as above. Below is an illustration of the nearly identical northern
Oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau (see the archive section for recordings of O. tau.
(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)
Click on thumbnail. At the time
I did not realize it, but this is an example of a rare time when I recorded video confirmation of fish sounds. If you listen carfully you will hear the "cluck" sounds of
the searobin as it swims around the chum can.
(Click on thumbnail to download clip). Video of scup, Stenotomus chrysops,
black sea bass, Centropristis striata, and a large tautog, Tautoga onitis, taken shortly after the above searobin clip on September 30, 2000.
In the first few seconds you will see a scup pulling bait from a chum can. You can also hear it tear the bait out and chew on it. The load splash you hear is my
fishing line hitting the water (You can easily hear fishing lines hit the water from several hundred feet away. Even in very noisy conditions.) Next you will see
two small black sea bass feeding on scrapes left by the scup. One of the black sea bass leaves while one stays behind trying to get more food from the can (he is on
the bottom near the left end of the chum can). The second sea bass darts away rapidly when disturbed by an unknown sound. Did you spot the tautog yet? Believe it or not,
a large tautog is in the field of view during the entire clip! He is siting on the left side of the screen facing the chum can. His head is larger than the height of
the can (4-5 inches). You can see him move away in response to the unknown sound at the same time as the black sea bass. I had seen this clip six or seven times before
I noticed it, even then I thought it was a fish "ghost". I'm using a camera equipped with IR lights so the camera does not disturb the fish. Under these conditions, the
tautog is extremely well camouflaged!
Aquarium photo of a small striped cusk-eel, Ophidion marginatum, collected at the Cotuit town dock
following a recording session.
(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)
(Illustration courtesy of NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC)