Auditioning fish for sound production in captivity to contribute to a catalogue of known fish sounds to inform regional passive acoustic studies

Abstract

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is increasingly used as a method to characterize underwater soundscapes and the impacts of noise on marine ecosystems. The natural sounds produced by marine mammals have been widely studied, enabling the use of PAM as an effective conservation tool. However, much less is known about fish sound production, particularly in the northeast Pacific. This lack of information makes it difficult to identify fish sounds that are present in long-term recordings and thus precluding accurate determination of fish species composition and evaluation of the effects of noise on fishes. In order to identify fish sounds in British Columbia soundscapes, we need catalogues of validated fish sounds from Pacific species. These catalogs will help in comparing validated examples to unknown sounds found in long-term autonomous recordings. Our goal is to contribute to building such catalogues and to fill knowledge gaps in fish acoustic behaviour to support studies on the impact of anthropogenic noise on Pacific fishes. We are collaborating with aquaria, ocean-based aquaculture facilities and commercial fisheries to monitor, audition, and record the acoustic behavior of captive and semi-captive fish species. Here, we will present the results of these studies.