Bioacoustics note from the AAAS Science web site: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/
[Please note: One needs to be a member of the AAAS to gain access to the AAAS article indicated below. However, I'll give a brief outline of the article with an additional public reference included.] ------------------------------------------------------------- A brief but interesting article related to bioacoustics on 07 Nov 2003: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2003/1107/3 Title: "Farting Fish Keep in Touch", by Mary Beckman It seems that herring have great hearing and to investigate this further Magnus Wahlberg, now at Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues reported earlier this year in "Aquatic Living Resources" (exact reference not given) that herring emit air bubbles from their anuses when scared or during ascent or descent. Further investigations by Ben Wilson of Simon Frasier University in British Columbia, Canada, correlated the herring anus bubble blowing with emitted sounds. The sounds have been denoted as "Fast Repetitive Ticks" (FRT's). Further information and a sound file can be found at Ben Wilson's web page: http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/%7Ebwilson/herring.html Wilson and colleagues found that the FRT'ing appears to serve a social function because the herring made this particular noise, when they gather, just as darkness was falling. They also found that herring need to gulp air at the water surface in order to sustain FRT'ing. More details are reported online at "Biology Letters" (05 Nov 2003). ------------------------------------------------------------- Respectfully, Al Aburto Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
