During spring, Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) suitors form choirs in Portugal’s Tagus estuary to serenade the females, vibrating their swim bladders to produce a call, known as a boatwhistle, which sounds like a vibrating cell phone. The males also listen in on each other to check whether anyone is intruding on their territory. But sadly, their performances are no longer conducted in hushed reverence. Revving motorboats and churning ferry propellors and engines fill the water with unwelcome noise, which made Clara Amorim, Daniel Alves, Manuel Vieira and Paulo Fonseca, from the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, wonder whether human noise pollution is playing havoc with the garrulous fish’s ability to communicate. They publish their discovery that toadfish serenades are being drowned out by water traffic that also disrupts their ability to croon together in Journal of Experimental Biology.
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Source: Phys.org