Marine sounds

Listen to our underwater recordings

Lusitanian toadfish / Xarroco

Reported in Amorim, M. C. P., Simões, J. M., & Fonseca, P. J. (2008). Acoustic communication in the Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus: evidence for an unusual large vocal repertoire. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 88(5), 1069-1073.

Meagre / Corvina

Reported in

Vieira, M., Pereira, B. P., Pousão-Ferreira, P., Fonseca, P. J., & Amorim, M. (2019). Seasonal variation of captive meagre acoustic signalling: a manual and automatic recognition approach. Fishes, 4(2), 28.
Pereira, B. P., Vieira, M., Pousão-Ferreira, P., Candeias-Mendes, A., Barata, M., Fonseca, P. J., & Amorim, M. C. P. (2020). Sound production in the Meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801): intraspecific variability associated with size, sex and context. PeerJ, 8, e8559.

Weakfish / Corvinata-real

Reported in

Amorim, M. C. P., Wanjala, J. A., Vieira, M., Bolgan, M., Connaughton, M. A., Pereira, B. P., Fonseca, P. J. & Ribeiro, F. (2023). Detection of invasive fish species with passive acoustics: Discriminating between native and non-indigenous sciaenids. Marine Environmental Research, 188, 106017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2023.106017

Gobies / Caboz

Reported in:

Amorim, M. C. P., & Neves, A. S. M. (2007). Acoustic signalling during courtship in the painted goby, Pomatoschistus pictus. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 87(4), 1017-1023.
Pedroso, S. S., Barber, I., Svensson, O., Fonseca, P. J., & Amorim, M. C. P. (2013). Courtship sounds advertise species identity and male quality in sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. gobies. PLoS One, 8(6), e64620.
Amorim, M. C. P., Vasconcelos, R. O., Bolgan, M., Pedroso, S. S., & Fonseca, P. J. (2018). Acoustic communication in marine shallow waters: testing the acoustic adaptive hypothesis in sand gobies. Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(22).
de Jong, K., Amorim, M. C. P., Fonseca, P. J., Fox, C. J., & Heubel, K. U. (2018). Noise can affect acoustic communication and subsequent spawning success in fish. Environmental Pollution, 237, 814-823.
Penim, J., Beauchaud, M., Millot, M., Faria, A., Vieira, M., Fonseca, P., Vasconcelos, R.O. & Amorim, M. C. P. (2024) Turning up the heat: Effects of temperature on agonistic acoustic communication in the two-spotted goby (Pomatoschistus flavescens). Marine Environmental Research.

Cichlids / Ciclideos

Reported in:

Amorim, M. C. P., Knight, M. E., Stratoudakis, Y., & Turner, G. F. (2004). Differences in sounds made by courting males of three closely related Lake Malawi cichlid species. Journal of Fish Biology, 65(5), 1358-1371.
Amorim, M. C. P., & Almada, V. C. (2005). The outcome of male–male encounters affects subsequent sound production during courtship in the cichlid fish Oreochromis mossambicus. Animal Behaviour, 69(3), 595-601.

Gunards / Triglidanídios

Reported in:

Amorim, M. C. P., & Hawkins, A. D. (2000). Growling for food: acoustic emissions during competitive feeding of the streaked gurnard. Journal of Fish Biology, 57(4), 895-907.
Amorim, M. C. P., Stratoudakis, Y., & Hawkins, A. D. (2004). Sound production during competitive feeding in the grey gurnard. Journal of Fish Biology, 65(1), 182-194.
Amorim, M. C. P. (2006). Diversity of sound production in fish. Communication in fishes, 1, 71-104.

Azores fishes / Peixes dos Açores

Reported in Carriço, R., Silva, M. A., Menezes, G. M., Fonseca, P. J., & Amorim, M. C. P. (2019). Characterization of the acoustic community of vocal fishes in the Azores. PeerJ, 7, e7772.

Mozambican reef fish community / Peixes dos recifes de coral Moçambicanos

Reported in Puebla-Aparicio, M., Ascencio-Elizondo, C., Vieira, M., Amorim, M. C. P., Duarte, R., & Fonseca, P. J. (2024). Characterization of the fish acoustic communities in a Mozambican tropical coral reef. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 727, 143-158.

Acoustic fish community in the Madeira Archipelago (North Atlantic Ocean) / Peixes do arquipélago da Madeira

Muñoz-Duque, S., Fonseca, P. J., Quintella, B., Monteiro, J. G., Fernandez, M., Silva, R., Vieira, M. & Amorim, M. C. P. (2024). Acoustic fish community in the Madeira Archipelago (North Atlantic Ocean): characterization of sound diversity and daily patterns. Marine Environmental Research, 106600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106600

Acoustic fish community in the Professor Luiz Saldanha Marine Park (mainland Portugal)/ Peixes do Parque Marinho Professor Luiz Saldanha (Arrábida, Portugal continental).

Rios and Pereira et al. (under review)

Beach breaking waves / Rebentação de ondas do mar

Reported in Amorim, M. C. P., Vasconcelos, R. O., Bolgan, M., Pedroso, S. S., & Fonseca, P. J. (2018). Acoustic communication in marine shallow waters: testing the acoustic adaptive hypothesis in sand gobies. Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(22).

Other websites with marine sounds

There is still a major number of species that are not even confirmed as being vocal (Rice et al., 2020). Furthermore, does not exist a central database of sounds that could be used as reference for each species or group species. Efforts to make available several sounds have been done by the following websites: