December 9, 2009

Post date: Dec 9, 2009 8:53:32 PM

Sausalito is located north of San Francisco, near the Golden Gate Bridge. This waterfront community is famous for its yachts and houseboat communities. It is also famous for its humming toadfish. In July and August these California singing fish create quite the din under houseboats in the marina. Each mating call is droned in perfect A flat for an hour at a time. Toadfish hum, growl, and grunt by vibrating the muscles above their swim bladders at 6,000 times per minute -- twice the speed of hummingbird wings!

Fish have disturbed residents in other places too, such as black drum in Cape Coral, Florida, and cusk eel in Block Island, Rhode Island. Each time it happens, residents express disbelief that fish could possibly make that much noise! A delightful video with various fish sounds is at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08fish.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1