Mexican fish mating chorus deafens – study

Mexican fish mating

chorus deafens – study

A species of Mexican fish amasses in reproductive orgies so loud they can deafen other sea animals, scientists said, calling for preservation of the spectacle threatened by overfishing. An individual spawning Gulf corvina, the research team said, utters a mating call resembling a 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, study co-author Timothy Rowell, from the University of San Diego, said. ‘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.

– The Herald (subscription needed)