February 10, 2012

Deep Sea Is Alive with Sound

Scientists share the first-ever recordings of deep-sea species. Sarah Fecht reports

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(whistlelike sound) That’s not a bird whistling. This sound was recorded 2000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Scientists postulated decades ago that deep-sea animals might use sound to navigate and communicate. But until now, no one had really tried to listen in.

That’s why marine ecologist Rodney Rountree, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, decided to turn a few mp3 players into waterproof, deep-sea recording devices. He and his colleagues attached one device to each of 100 crab traps, and sent them to the sea floor for 24 hours.

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After dredging up the traps and listening to the recordings, the team discovered a multitude of deep-sea sounds, including 12 they could not identify and which had probably never been heard before. [Rodney Rountree et al., "D o deep sea fishes make sounds ?"]

Rountree wants to send down video cameras along with the recording devices, in order to identify which species are making these strange sounds. Just like a birder uses his eyes and his ears to study bird species, Rountree hopes that eventually ecologists will be able to use sound to locate and learn more about marine species.

—Sarah Fecht

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

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