Listening to Fish

Abstract

Passive acoustics is a rapidly emerging field of marine biology that until recently has received little attention from fisheries scientists and managers. In its simplest form, it is the act of listening to the sounds made by fishes and using that information as an aid in locating fish so that their habitat requirements and behaviors can be studied. We believe that with the advent of new acoustic technologies, passive acoustics will become one of the most important and exciting areas of fisheries research in the next decade. However, a widespread lack of familiarity with the technology, methodologies, and potential of passive acoustics has hampered the growth of the field and limited funding opportunities. Herein, we provide an overview of important new developments in passive acoustics together with a summary of research, hardware, and software needs to advance the field.