Undersea Conversations: How Fish Keep The Peace in a Noisy Ocean

Ever wonder how fish manage to hear each other in a noisy ocean? Picture a crowded cocktail party. Everyone’s talking at once—but instead of chaos, people instinctively adjust: spreading out or speaking at different pitches. It’s a social dance that helps everyone be heard.

Underwater, something similar might be happening—at least in some places.

A new study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series offers one of the most detailed looks yet at the “who, when, and where” of fish chorusing in national marine sanctuaries offshore California. NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar Ella B. Kim and her co-authors analyzed more than 18 collective years of passive acoustic recordings from three adjacent national marine sanctuaries—Monterey Bay, Chumash Heritage, and Channel Islands. Their findings reveal distinct seasonal, spatial, and nocturnal patterns tied to reproductive and habitat preferences for five chorusing species: plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus), bocaccio rockfish (Sebastes paucispinis), white seabass (Atractoscion nobilis), and two mystery fish that have not yet been identified (referred to as UF440 and UF310).

While the possibility of acoustic niche partitioning—where species “take turns” or call at different frequencies—adds an intriguing layer to the data analysis, the study’s core contribution is foundational: simply identifying which fish are chorusing, where, and when. With more than 34,000 fish species in the ocean and only about 1,000 linked to known vocalizations, each new match is a major step in decoding the underwater soundscape.

Read more at sanctuaries.noaa.gov.