Episode 002: That Sounds Fishy!

Several decades back, coastal residents on both sides of the U.S. coast started to hear strange, persistent, humming, thumping, and booming sounds from their beds at night.

"They thought it might be aliens, Russian submarines, and all kind of weird theories. And then someone spoke to a fish biologist"

It turns out, that in both cases, it was the mating call of two very different species of fish. We speak to the scientists and fishermen that spent years investigating these peculiar fish.

The plainfin midshipman is also known as "The humming toadfish". It can generate an almost mechanical sounding humming noise for hours on end.

Although the idea of a singing fish is weird, fascinating, and funny. We also hear the unusual story of how the noises made by herring once escalated political tensions between Soviet Russia and Sweden. Which led many to fear that the world's first nuclear war was ever closer.

The noises made by herring fish were continually mistaken as a sign of invading Russian submarines during the Cold War, escalating political tensions between Sweden and Soviet Russia.

Special thanks to our guests

Doctor's Ni Feng, Andrew Bass, and Magnus Wahlberg. And to Kirk Lombard, author of 'The Sea Forager’s Guide to the Northern California Coast'.