Ap. Klimley et Sc. Beavers, PLAYBACK OF ACOUSTIC THERMOMETRY OF OCEAN CLIMATE (ATOC)-LIKE SIGNAL TO BONY FISHES TO EVALUATE PHONOTAXIS, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 104(4), 1998, pp. 2506-2510
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether acoustic thermometry of
ocean climate (ATOC) signals have a positive or negative phonotactic e
ffect on the behavior of fish present near the sound source at Pioneer
Seamount off Central California. We played back an ATOC-like signal t
o three species of rockfish kept within a 15X2-m field enclosure in Bo
dega Bay, California. Each subject was observed during a 25-min ''sile
nt'' control period followed immediately by a test period comprised of
a 5-min ''ramp-up,'' in which the sound level increased gradually to
a peak level, and a 20-min period at constant peak level. The amount o
f time that each subject spent in 15 zones, each 1 m wide, at increasi
ng distances from the sound transducer, was observed. It was suspended
in midwater at the center of zone 1, the deepest portion of the enclo
sure. We observed little movement by fish in response to the playback
of the ATOC signal. The subjects remained in zones 1 and 2, despite so
und pressure levels present of 145.1-153.0 dB re: 1 mu Pa. Little diff
erence existed in the behavior of fish during sound playback period an
d the ''silent'' control period. The median time interval that fishes
occupied zone 1 was 100% of the experiment duration for both test and
control periods (i.e., 6 of 11 subjects in the former remained exclusi
vely within that zone versus 7 of 11 subjects in the latter). (C) 1998
Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(98)04310-0].