The future of fish bioacoustics.

Abstract

In 1993 (Brain, Behav. Evol. 41, 14–38 (1993)] we evaluated changes in our knowledge of fish bioacoustics since our 1973 review and proposed ten issues that still needed to be answered. This presentation asks whether we have have made progress on these issues since 1993 and poses questions for future fish bioacoustics research. Many of the topics suggested in 1993, such as sound localization mechanism, the roles of the swim bladder’ and other peripheral structures in hearing, and the contributions of pressure and particle motion in hearing are still open. There are also “newer” questions not apparent in 1993, such as mechanisms of ultrasound detection and the effects of increased human‐generated noise on fish. The usefulness of thinking of fish as “hearing specialists” and “hearing generalists” still needs to be assessed. Finally, an overriding question related to the significance of the diversity of fishes and diversity in ear structure, has not been resolved. Indeed, we still do not know whether the div...