Fish Sounds

There is not a "universal fish." There are an estimated 25,000 species of fish in the ocean – from seahorses to sharks, from lantern fish to tuna – all inhabiting their specific niche, with their own particular (and sometimes peculiar) adaptations to sound.

These adaptations allow them to perceive their surroundings; the acoustic pressure wave of an approaching predator; the undulating bodies of their schooling kin; the "acoustic illumination" provided by the background noise of the sea. In this realm of perception "pitch discrimination" as we mammals know it is not a priority.

A few fish "vocalize" or make sounds in some manner or other. What we hear and have recorded are not typically "pretty" sounds. Grunting, rasping, chortling, and sometimes even humming. This again substantiates that pitch discrimination is probably not as important to various fish as "time domain" characteristics of their surrounding (and self-created) acoustical energy.