A history of fish bioacoustics

Abstract

Awareness of fish sound production dates back to ancient times, and concern about effects of man-made sounds on fishes can be traced back at least to the mid 17th century. By the end of the 19th century, the morphology of the fish ear had been well described, but experimental studies of the hearing characteristics did not begin until the early 1900s, when Parker demonstrated that fish can detect sounds. Subsequent work by von Frisch and his students, including Dijkgraaf, determined the range of frequencies that fishes could detect, and showed the fishes can discriminate between sounds. Later work in Europe provided a deeper understanding of sound detection mechanisms with Enger pioneering experiments on fishes in the sea. Experiments in the sea by Schuijf, Chapman, and others demonstrated that fish could discriminate sound directions. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Moulton, Tavolga, and their students documented diversity in fish hearing capabilities. Concurrently, studies by Fish, Winn, Myrberg, Tavolga, and ot...