Sing Like Fish
How Sound Rules Life Under Water
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A captivating exploration of how underwater animals tap into sound to survive, and a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes—from an award-winning science writer
“Sing Like Fish is that rare book that makes you see the world differently.”—Mark Kurlansky, New York Times bestselling author of Salt and Cod
For centuries, humans ignored sound in the “silent world” of the ocean, assuming that what we couldn’t perceive, didn’t exist. But we couldn’t have been more wrong. Marine scientists now have the technology to record and study the complex interplay of the myriad sounds in the sea. Finally, we can trace how sounds travel with the currents, bounce from the seafloor and surface, bend with the temperature and even saltiness; how sounds help marine life survive; and how human noise can transform entire marine ecosystems.
In Sing Like Fish, award-winning science journalist Amorina Kingdon synthesizes historical discoveries with the latest scientific research in a clear and compelling portrait of this sonic undersea world. From plainfin midshipman fish, whose swim-bladder drumming is loud enough to keep houseboat-dwellers awake, to the syntax of whalesong; from the deafening crackle of snapping shrimp, to the seismic resonance of underwater earthquakes and volcanoes; sound plays a vital role in feeding, mating, parenting, navigating, and warning—even in animals that we never suspected of acoustic ability.
Meanwhile, we jump in our motorboats and cruise ships, oblivious to the impact below us. Our lifestyle is fueled by oil in growling tankers and furnished by goods that travel in massive container ships. Our seas echo with human-made sound, but we are just learning of the repercussions of anthropogenic noise on the marine world’s delicate acoustic ecosystems—masking mating calls, chasing animals from their food, and even wounding creatures, from plankton to lobsters.
With intimate and artful prose, Sing Like Fish tells a uniquely complete story of ocean animals’ submerged sounds, envisions a quieter future, and offers a profound new understanding of the world below the surface.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The ocean is not and has never been a silent place," according to this exquisite debut inquiry. Exploring how noise shapes marine life, science writer Kingdon cites studies that found every dolphin develops a unique whistling call to identify itself to others and that frillfin goby fish grunt to coordinate their mating ritual. Some marine mammals can echolocate, Kingdon explains, noting that belugas emit clicks to lock onto prey while hunting, and that dolphins use the noises to gain information about the thickness and material of nearby surfaces. Delving into the anatomy of underwater hearing, Kingdon expounds on how fish ears have hair cells, moved by vibration, that brush against small organs called otoliths, generating nerve impulses to the brain. Kingdon's descriptions are as edifying as they are evocative, as when she writes of her attempts to record the hubbub of Cape Cod's Bass River: "The cusk-eel chorus rises highest, each voice chattering over another, accompanied by a gentle chorus of toadfish boops, layered like synthesizer notes." Nature enthusiasts will be troubled by her discussion of how shipping, sonar, and powerful undersea air guns used to search for oil and gas reserves are dramatically disrupting marine life. This will open readers' eyes, and ears, to a heretofore hidden world.
