Residents of Tampa, Florida have reported hearing strange noises coming from the bay for years, and now scientists believe it could be fish mating — very loud, according to reports.
The deep, vibrating sound has plagued residents since at least 2021, prompting several calls to the police, according to WTVT. But the scariest aspect is not knowing the origin of the racket
Local scientist James Locascio is tasked with solving the mystery, and identifies the sound as a black drum fish mating underwater.
“It’s a pretty unusual phenomenon,” Locascio told The Washington Post. “All these people were surprised by it because it was unknown.”
The residents thought long and hard about the source of the sound before they enlisted Locascio, who agreed to investigate whether they could afford the recording costs. They launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a study.
“It seems a little silly to me to pursue it so strongly,” Sara Healy, the fundraiser’s organizer, told the WaPo. “But on another level, it’s something that’s important to the community.”
Locascio, a fisheries program manager for the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, said he plans to put the equipment underwater to confirm his hypothesis.
“It’s a low frequency sound, and so they travel better and farther, and they go through different media better,” he told WVTV.
The mating sound travels over land, possibly explaining how residents living more than a mile from the water can still hear it, he explained.
Black drum fish produce a bass-like sound by moving their muscles against their swim bladder, Locascio told the Washington Post.
The scientist completed his dissertation on black drum fish in 2005 at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. He used his underwater acoustic recordings to help solve a similar sound mystery for residents in Cape Coral and Punta Gorda — about 100 miles south of Tampa.
Around this time last year, Punta Gorda officials confirmed to residents a strange sound many reported coming from black drum fish “during spawning,” in the city’s canals, the Miami Herald reported.
