<a href="http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/";
rel="nofollow">http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/</a>
[Please note: One needs to be a member of the AAAS to gain
access to the AAAS article indicated below. However, I'll
give a brief outline of the article with an additional public
reference included.]
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A brief but interesting article related to bioacoustics
on 07 Nov 2003:
<a href="http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2003/1107/3";
rel="nofollow">http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2003/1107/3</a>
Title: "Farting Fish Keep in Touch", by Mary Beckman
It seems that herring have great hearing and to investigate
this further Magnus Wahlberg, now at Aarhus University in
Denmark, and colleagues reported earlier this year in
"Aquatic Living Resources" (exact reference not given) that
herring emit air bubbles from their anuses when scared or
during ascent or descent.
Further investigations by Ben Wilson of Simon Frasier
University in British Columbia, Canada, correlated the
herring anus bubble blowing with emitted sounds. The sounds
have been denoted as "Fast Repetitive Ticks" (FRT's). Further
information and a sound file can be found at Ben Wilson's
web page:
<a href="http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/%7Ebwilson/herring.html";
rel="nofollow">http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/%7Ebwilson/herring.html</a>
Wilson and colleagues found that the FRT'ing appears to serve
a social function because the herring made this particular
noise, when they gather, just as darkness was falling. They
also found that herring need to gulp air at the water surface
in order to sustain FRT'ing. More details are reported online
at "Biology Letters" (05 Nov 2003).
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Respectfully,
Al Aburto Jr.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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