Herring studies explain underwater sounds once suspected as submarines

When
Scientific illustration of an Atlantic herring
An Atlantic herring; studies in 2003 and 2004 showed herring make pulsed sounds by releasing gas Gervais et Boulart, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Studies by Magnus Wahlberg and Hakan Westerberg (2003) and by Ben Wilson, Robert Batty and Lawrence Dill (2004) showed herring make pulsed sounds by releasing gas. Wahlberg had been asked to examine noises the Swedish navy linked to submarine activity. The work won a 2004 Ig Nobel Prize.

Sources

  1. PressHerring use farts to communicate (fast repetitive ticks) (opens in a new tab)FlipScience / 2020-11-25
  2. OtherPacific and Atlantic herring produce burst pulse sounds (Proc. R. Soc. B / Biology Letters, 2004) (opens in a new tab)Royal Society (via PubMed Central, U.S. National Library of Medicine) / 2004-02-07
  3. OtherIg Nobel Prize winners (2004 Biology Prize) (opens in a new tab)Improbable Research

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