Scientists have for the first time captured the sounds of snapping shrimp off the Oregon coast and think the loud crackling from the snapping of their claws may serve as a dinner bell for eastern Pacific gray whales, according to new research by NOAA and Oregon State University presented here today.
Scientists have for the first time captured the sounds of snapping shrimp off the Oregon coast and think the loud crackling from the snapping of their claws may serve as a dinner bell for eastern Pacific gray whales, according to new research by NOAA and Oregon State University presented here today.
“Nobody was aware of any sign of snapping shrimp in Oregon nearshore waters ever – they are completely undocumented,” said Joe Haxel, a marine acoustics researcher at Oregon State University's Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies and NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Oregon who will present the findings Tuesday, February 13, at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting. “That was a surprise, and very interesting to us, because we found areas with our drifting recordings that were just chock full of these snapping shrimp sounds, and they're really loud.”
Snapping shrimp are among the noisiest animals in the ocean. They produce a loud clicking noise when snapping their claws to stun or kill their prey. When enough shrimp snap at once, the din can be louder than the roar of a passenger jet flying overhead.
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Image via NOAA.
