Embedded Files
Songs of the Fishes
Songs of the Fishes
Survivor's Shanty.mp3Survivor's Shanty - written, performed and produced by Elizabeth LoGiudice
Survivor's Shanty
Survivor's Shanty
The Project Breathless theme song!
A rousing sea shanty about the resilience of fish despite the many challenges they have faced throughout Earth's history and in the modern day. Turn it up and sing along!
Music from a fish's ear
Music from a fish's ear
This otolith, taken from a five-year-old cod from the Baltic Sea, shows the visible growth rings (top) and the patterns of manganese banding (below) that indicate exposure to hypoxia.
Project Breathless collaborator Elizabeth LoGiudice wokred with researchers Karin Limburg, Hadis Miraly, Jacob Oster and Ben Walther to convert the chemical data from the ear stones of individual fish into musical notes using an open source data sonification tool called Two Tone.
They made music from the musical data, and these 'fish songs' interpret each fish's life story. Ear stones grow like a tree, adding annual growth rings. The rings on an ear stone provide a log of an individual fish's life, revealing details about the conditions where it swam. Each fish song reflects the lifetime of the fish - from birth to death - the songs end abruptly, signifying that the fish died.
The team composed songs from the otoliths of species of fish that are emblematic of the basins studied by Project Breathless, cod in the Baltic Sea, red drum in the Gulf of Mexico, and yellow perch in Lake Erie. The songs interpret different aspects of the fish's life as revealed by trace elements. The songs tell stories of fishes - from their seasonal migrations to hypoxia exposure. Explore the fish song pages to listen to the songs of the fishes.
Making Music from Research Data
Making Music from Research Data
Project Breathless researchers learn about an individual fish’s life history by examining the growth rings on its ear stones (otoliths), tiny structures that are part of its hearing & balance system.
We also analyze the chemistry of the ear stones. Certain trace elements that deposit on an ear stone indicate underwater conditions the fish encountered during its lifetime, while other trace elements suggest details about the fish’s health:
Phosphorus – related to growth
Magnesium – a function of metabolism
Barium – indicates the fish spent time in nearshore waters.
Strontium – related to salinity. Present in salt water, but not usually found in freshwater, strontium can be used to track a fish’s seasonal movements
Manganese – usually found in solid form, manganese dissolves in water only under low-oxygen conditions. If a fish has higher amounts of manganese deposited on its ear stone, it is likely that it encountered hypoxic water
Copy of cod songs1.12.22 .mp4Cod Songs video produced for the Baltic Sea Science Center at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. Produced by Elizabeth LoGiudice with Anna Björn, Yvette Heimbrand and Karin Limburg.Footage provided by Deep Sea Reporter & Shutterstock.com.
Copyright © Karin Limburg, Elizabeth LoGiudice, SUNY, RF SUNY / 2020, 2021. All rights reserved. These Fish Songs may not be published, reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. For permission, contact [klimburg@esf.edu].
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