Plainfin Midshipman Fish: Songbirds of the Sea

Abstract

Most of us have heard birds sing during the spring breeding season. Did you know that some fish also sing to attract mates? We study plainfin midshipman fish, a fascinating fish that makes its home along the Pacific Coast of North America. The big male fish sing during the summer months and their sound-producing muscles get bigger in the summer, probably to make them sound more attractive to females. Female midshipman fish go through seasonal changes, too. In the summer their hearing improves, which helps them pick the right male to mate with. We study hearing in female plainfin midshipman, measuring how their ears respond to sound and how the number of hearing cells in their ears changes between winter and summer. We want to know how seasonal changes in hormones affect hearing in this “songbird of the sea”.