Abstract
Observations were made on the influence of underwater divers on the behaviour of fish in Loch Torridon, on the west coast of Scotland. An electronically scanned sonar and a television camera were used to record the behaviour of 4 species common in the loch. These were the cod Gadus morhua (L), the saithe Pollachius virens (L), the pollack P. pollachius (L) and the common dab Limanda limanda (L). These fish were attracted to divers and to a sound source when the recorded noise from an aqualung and demand valve was transmitted into the water. By analysis and by testing different components of the noise it was shown that low frequencies between 30 and 110 Hz, generated by the release of exhaled air, were responsible for the attraction. It is suggested that the fish associated this noise with the presence of food organisms disturbed from the sea bed by the diver and that they had become conditioned to the noise over a period of time.
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Communicated by J.H.S. Blaxter, Oban
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Chapman, C.J., Johnstone, A.D.F., Dunn, J.R. et al. Reactions of fish to sound generated by divers' open-circuit underwater breathing apparatus. Mar. Biol. 27, 357–366 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00394372
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00394372