Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water

by Amorina Kingdon

A captivating exploration of how underwater animals tap into sound to survive, and a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes—from an award-winning science writer

For centuries humans ignored sound in the “silent world” of the ocean, assuming that what we couldn’t perceive, didn’t exist. But we couldn’t have been more wrong. Marine scientists now have the technology to record and study the complex interplay of the myriad sounds in the sea. Finally, we can trace how sounds travel with the currents, bounce from the seafloor and surface, bend with temperature, and even saltiness; how sounds help marine life survive; and how human noise can transform entire marine ecosystems.

In Sing Like Fish , award-winning science journalist Amorina Kingdon synthesizes historical discoveries with the latest research in a clear and compelling portrait of this sonic undersea world. From plainfin midshipman fish, whose swim-bladder drumming is loud enough to keep houseboat-dwellers awake, to the syntax of whalesong, from the deafening crackle of snapping shrimp, to underwater earthquakes and volcanoes, sound plays a vital role in feeding, mating, parenting, navigating, and warning - even in animals that we never suspected of acoustic ability.

Meanwhile, we jump in our motorboats and cruise ships, oblivious to the impact below us. Our lifestyle is fuelled by oil in growling tankers and furnished by goods that travel in massive container ships. Navies deploy underwater sonar, and prospectors use seismic imaging to seek oil and gas under ocean floors. Our seas echo with human-made sound, but we are just learning how these pervasive noises can mask mating calls, chase animals from their food, and even wound creatures as from plankton to lobsters.

With intimate and artful prose, Sing Like Fish tells a uniquely complete story of ocean animals’ submerged sounds, envisions a quieter future, and offers a profound new understanding of the world below the surface.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals, Biology, Audiobook, Environment

336 pages, Hardcover

Published June 4, 2024

About the author

Hi! I am a science journalist and speculative fiction writer living in Victoria, BC. My first non-fiction book is Sing Like Fish, and I have also published several short stories in PRISM, Speculative North, and other places.

Thank you to everyone who reads, comments on, or engages with my work! It means so much to me to see my work out in the world :)

When it comes to reading, I am always awed by beautiful nature writing. I am a longtime diehard speculative fiction girl, and I have been making my way through the classics.

My work has been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays, received a Digital Publishing Award, a Jack Webster Award, and I was awarded Best New Magazine Writer from the National Magazine Awards. I used to be a staff writer and researcher at Hakai Magazine, a science writer for the University of Victoria and the Science Media Center of Canada.

Reviews

[Dona's · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Learned a great deal about ocean noise, both natural and pollution.

Full review:

I found a digital copy of SING LIKE FISH by Amorina Kingdon on Libby. All views are mine.

There are little to no regulations about underwater noise—yet. Internationally, standards are in development, and international organizations are discussing the issue. p10

Traduttore, traditore. —Italian adage meaning “Translator, traitor,” suggesting that some of the original meaning is always lost in translation. p142

This was such a moving read for me that I've given up eating fish. I wouldn't expect other readers to react the same way, but some science just can't be ignored. For me, that includes the science that most fish talk to each other, at least others of their kind, and some sea creatures appear to be trying to communicate with humans.

This is truly excellent nonfiction. Even though it discusses a critical subject, it does not become political. The author really resists what are numerous opportunities to grouse about responsible parties. Instead, she focuses the book's considerable force providing numerous examples that fall under her umbrella of concern.

I recommend this to nonfiction or popular science readers who are interested in sound, the ocean, or marine life, or anyone who is curious to read about underwater communication. Here is a trigger warning for cruelty to animals and animal suffering.

[The] truth is that noise does not match the deep threat posed to the oceans by climate change. And yet, neither issue is monolithic or exists in a vacuum. Warming or acidifying waters will conduct sound differently: Sound’s effect on ecosystems like reefs or Arctic food webs will ricochet into animals’ responses to climate change. p244

Reading Notes

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. Kingdon really describes noise pollution in a way I can understand it. Which is brilliant, because she describes it in a collection of abstractions: As a pollutant noise is hard to regulate. It is not visible, like plastic debris. It doesn’t linger like spilled oil, and it doesn’t sum simply: Two ships do not make twice as much noise as one ship. Not all noises are a problem. p21

2. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat fish again. I can't eat things that talk to each other.

3. Some really beautiful descriptions of the fish's voices, such as here, on page 86: In the vessel-clogged waters directly opposite the Bass River Yacht Club, the cusk-eel chorus rises highest, each voice chattering over another, accompanied by a gentle chorus of toadfish boops, layered like synthesizer notes. It’s beautiful. I stop, glide, listen. Fish are singing, even here.

4. “You don’t have to go to the Galápagos, you don’t have to go to the Mid-Atlantic rift. You just go to the docks in New York City. And it’s an unknown world.” p88 I love how science books for a popular audience can uncover the mystery in our common world, in our everyday lives!

5. I've never before had me attention called to noise pollution to this extent. The data fascinates, but also I'm starting to recognize the impact it has on wild places and the wildlife that lives in them.

6. She poses a fascinating consideration about life, language, and experience: After all, our own language, our words, profoundly shape our own minds. How much do the sounds of an intelligent and vocal animal like a killer whale or dolphin or beluga shape its mind, its what-it’s-like, its umwelt? p140

7. She illustrates well what's at stake if humanity doesn't address the issue of noisy seas, while also being realistic about the pressure mounting on other scientific issues: But dizzy lobsters, bruised scallops, and confused mammals testify that noise harms can be subtle and long-lasting. p245

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I really despise when our greatest scientific discoveries come at the hands of humans at their worst. Marie Poland used cruel ways in her research, but discovered something we would never have guessed about fish. Her research, and that of those who followed her, showed that fish have the widest variety of sound-making structures of any vertebrate group. Such amazing animals and she abused them to elicit their noises.

2. A trigger warning for animal cruelty should be added to the front matter in future editions. I appreciate the author's efforts in this area, by adding a sentence of warning in parenthesis before the sensitive descriptions ensue. My issue is the wandering eye that covers the next sentence before I can send the "stop reading" signal from my brain to my eyes. The problem is also the days my eyes don't work well and I use the assistive reader feature, which rushes right into the sensitive description before I can stop it. This is why I always advocate for trigger warnings in the front matter.

3. I thought the call to action in the conclusion was a little weak. Maybe this issue isn't as perplexing as global warming on a large scale, but she had me all in. I'm convinced this is an important ecological issue, as this world and its waters are getting anything but quieter. But she was just like, meh, hope you'll bother to give this subject a passing thought.

Rating: 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟 /5 chatty fish
Recommend? Yes, absolutely
Finished: Aug 15 '24
Format: Digital, Kindle, Libby
Read this book if you like:
📓 nonfiction
🦻 discussions of sound and hearing
🦑 sea creatures
🌊 ocean science

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an ear-opening read for me. I'd never really considered anything under water as a sound conductor beyond glugs and bubbles rising. My sum total of education was an 8th grade class of Oceanography which had me choosing my quarter's report on sharks, and a serious focus on certain team members who showed promise of a different kind. Throw in the Incredible Mr. Limpet, and the various undersea movies that rarely came through TV waves. . .that's it. This book brought me a new way of thinking about life below the water's surface.

Amorina Kingdon provides a basic way into the subject, and it was extremely helpful for me - not too much, and not too little. She hit the Goldilocks mark perfectly. From there she branched into the citizens of the undersea environment, how they hear, what they care about, what interferes with their peace and prosperity, to the magic as she finds it in her favorite focuses (plainfin midshipmen fish). She covers those echolocators we love (under and over water), and opens wide the window to communication between all these creatures - just as chatty as you and me - some conversations happening with 1000 miles between participants.

Lastly, with a more somber tone, the author turns to how many of our improvements to daily life are anything but that for species below water surfaces. Our motors, drills, pounding, thumping, bumping and dredging aren't just harmful, they are turning paradise to an abandoned landscape, supporting nothing. She admits that climate change is a bigger threat to oceans and waterways than sound pollution, but she offers the subject in a readable way for all to consider. For that, I'm grateful for the new thoughts about sound - all around us, in and out of the waterscapes.

Hoping for more interesting reads from Amorina Kingdon!

*A sincere thank you to Amorina Kingdon, Crown Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #SingLikefish #NetGalley

[Bonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister and I used to play a game when we were swimming at my aunt's pool. We'd both duck underwater, one of us would say something, and then the other would try to guess what had been said. I don't remember that we were very successful at deciphering the burbles and gurgles, but it's part of why I wanted to read Sing Like Fish. I know sound is important underwater and wanted to learn how fish and other animals use it. I learned far more than I ever expected! Kingdon writes about the anatomy of fish ears, dolphin calls, and beluga echolocation. She explains how sound travels underwater and behaves differently in water, moving in currents, and off the seafloor, and can even be altered by temperature and salinity. The author also writes about sound production by ocean dwellers; fish have a surprising number of ways to produce sound. Sound plays an important role in feeding, mating, parenting, navigating, and warning underwater and all of our human-made sounds can affect and interfere with these. You might wonder if you could possibly be interested in a book about sound underwater, and if it is this original, captivating book, my answer is a resounding yes.

[Jay W · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a certified water hater, this book made me care a lot about fish and bioacoustics. It was really easy to read, and a lot of it is about coastal BC and the research being done there. It's also a lot about people finding their way into the niche profession of fish sound researcher. Would recommend this book to anyone who had a dolphin obsession growing up.

[kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ahhh omg one of my new favorites this year for sure! I loved the author's writing style, and after reading this I am absolutely also going to get a tiny hydrophone like she did so I can listen to the ocean too. She explains how the physical structure of our ears prevents us from being able to hear the sounds of underwater as ocean life does. For example, invertebrates and some fish sense sound through particle movement rather than just pressure changes as we do. Sound waves also behave very differently (4.5 times faster!) in water than in the air, and we are simply not built to appreciate the richness of ocean sound. Did you know that when underwater, navy diving experiments have shown that sound probably does not even reach the eardrum but that hearing is instead through bone conduction?!

Not only does she go over a lot of the mechanics of sound waves and hearing in a very accessible way, she explains the physics of how sound works in the ocean. She explains the SOFAR channel, an especially sound-conductive layer in the ocean where sound can travel incredibly long distances. If you read and enjoyed Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves by James Nestor, he goes into this as well and its relation to ocean mammal communication. If you liked that book at all, you would also really enjoy this one and vice versa!

So in addition to sound sensing, Kingdon covers sound making by ocean organisms as well. Fish have the widest variety of sound making structures of any vertebrate group! You can bet my YouTube history is now filled with things like "midshipman fish singing" now lol. She also of course gets into a lot of details of how whales and dolphins produce and hear sound, so if you are into cetaceans and their communication, then this book would be very interesting for you.

But this author seeks not only to discuss how sound works in the ocean and the many, many cool sounds produced by ocean animals, but also how the soundscape of the ocean is changing due to noise produced by the shipping industry and developments such as offshore wind farms or seabed mining. Ship noise is even still audible in the Mariana Trench- and some species are proving to be very sensitive to an increasingly loud ocean.

[Alex Rosenblum · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some interesting themes, but the overall execution is not great. Im surprised this has as high of ratings as it does, for a few reasons.
It needed MUCH better/more editing- it was VERY repetitive. Many times the almost exact sentence was written more than twice. (In different chapters). At other times she would make reference to being in a location or setting completely out of context, with no indication of how she got there or anything. Just weird misses by the editor in terms of continuity. Annoying- and honestly just misses that a good editor should have picked up.

Spelling errors. I know it’s a first edition, but again. Editors. Come on! I think I only saw two but they were at the beginning, maybe the first or the second chapters. I was honestly reading much less carefully by the end.

It’s a book literally ALL about soniferous sea things, and she doesn’t mention until literally less than 10 pages before the end of the book that there is a web site you can go to to hear all the sounds she’s been mentioning for the last 200 pages?
Why wouldn’t she START with that info? What a weird thing not to mention. As I was reading I kept literally looking up the animals being mentioned so I could hear the sounds she was describing and I thought - wow it would have been perfect if she, a journalist, had maybe, I don’t know, put together her sources on a web page (I know they’re in the back but you have to search through them) or something so we could find the sounds by animal as we were reading? And then I get to the end of the book and she’s like- oh yeah- there’s a web site someone made for that?? Wtf.🤬

And oh yeah- there IS a „notes“ section in the back, which is numbered as if there are footnotes in the text….BUT there are no numbers in the text? Soooo you can read though the notes… or you just have to go through and try your best to find whatever study she mentions (when she names them) if you want to learn more by searching through that chapters notes?? Seriously this is WHY footnotes exists!!

AND you have to do your best to search through these „Notes“ when she makes statements- like the following, as an example- that sound scientific but are just maddening because over and over she fails to a) cite a reference or b) explain in more detail. (This was on reference to whale sounds) „But when different groups within a single area have different call repertoires, that suggests they have different dialects, and that suggests they’re keeping distinct from each other on purpose“ p135 (I omitted her italics cuz I can’t type them here.) She drops statements like that and then totally doesn’t follow up on them with enough explanation, or use footnotes (!!??!!) or number references. Really frustrating to read.

Anyway. Yeah. 2/5

[Vic Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amorina Kingdon's "Sing Like Fish" was a remarkable read. It opens a new world I knew existed (who hasn't heard of whale calls or dolphin echolocation) but never gave much thought to. What I learned from "Sing" was a lot more than what I get out of my average non-fiction read.

The first half of the book is very human and accessible. It's filled with anecdotes and the thrill of exploring a scientific field. Civilian underwater acoustic study began in the early 60' but really took offc when the Cold War ended and tons of military research on underwater sound was made available to the general public. They were looking for anti-submarine information but had accumulated a lot of info and technology about underwater acoustics. The research asked who was making what sounds and why. How far do whale "songs" travel? Bottlenose dolphins share a collection of sounds common to all bottlenose. But each bottlenose has a sound "signature" unique to itself Effectively, each bottlenose has its own "name." Killer whale pods often have their own "accent" and regional "vocabulary." This results in different pods, say a migrating type pod vs a local pod that does not migrate, avoiding each other. Blue whales seem to learn new "songs" from other blue whales. How do all these critters effect and are effected by sound. And that leads to the second half.

The second half is still all to easily grasped and is about as "human" as the subject gets. It covers the effect of human made sound; sonar, ship and boat engine noise, pile driving, underwater air cannons (used for the sub service research looking for oil deposits beneath the sea bed). It isn't good. Kingdon goes in to great detail about current research and what it tells us. The impact of sound pollution pales next to the the impact of climate change but it is an important aspect of human impact on the natural world.

I would recommend this book to people interested in marine mammals or oceanography. Kingdon is an excellent wordsmith and her enthusiasm and knowledge combine to make reading her interesting, fun, and informative.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems to be the year of ocean non-fiction, and this is a good one. Kingdon focuses on the creatures who make, and listen to, sound underwater in this tightly focused, readable and engaging book. Inevitably, there is a lot about whales, belugas and dolphins, but a fair few fish pop up too. Kingdon brings more of a mournful quality than a furious one to the inevitable documentation of destruction. As creatures with pretty crap hearing, she demonstrates, we can vastly underestimate the damage our noisy lives are creating. Will this end the world - probably not, but it will deprive us of much of what makes the world wondrous.

[Danna Staaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sections/quotes I particularly enjoyed:

Animals moving from the sea to land "had to bring the sea with them so that certain parts would still work, which they did with aqueous eyes, salty blood, and wet inner ears." I've read about the sea-to-land transition numerous times, and even written about it, but the wetness of our inner ears had always escaped my attention! This whole book is full of things we often forget to pay attention to or think about.

It was cephalopods that provided "some of the first data on invertebrates and sound" in the form of cuttlefish responding to 180 Hz in 1963! After this mention, I was waiting eagerly to see if the author would bring up one of my favorite papers, Budelmann and Hanlon's "Why Cephalopods Are Probably Not Deaf" and she did, on page 72, but alas did not mention that it was a rebuttal of an earlier paper titled "Why Cephalopods Are Probably Deaf."

When herring hear their predators, killer whales, "they empty their swim bladder (in the quickest way they can--a fart) and sink...This strategic fart shifts them deeper and makes them less reflective to sound." Strategic Fart would be a good band name.

Chapter 7 opens with the Italian saying "Traduttore, traditore," which I had never heard before and is brilliant.

It was unsettling to learn that during the first decades of recording whale sounds (1950s and 60s), "whaling was still quite legal," and so the researcher who recorded them kept them secret for fear whalers would use them to hunt. But eventually when they became public, "the haunting sounds...helped kickstart public efforts to save the whales" which culminated in the 1982 moratorium on whaling.

"If you play birdsong slowed down, it sounds very much like whale song, and vice versa." This is blowing my mind. Feels ripe for exploration, in research or in fiction.

On the definition of culture: "We humans can be precious about such things, as for every urge to identify with or learn from nature, it seems we feel an equal reflex to hold ourselves separate and unique. For everyone who finds it beautiful to think of whale culture, another finds it ridiculous. Discussions of culture in animals seems to me at least, to illuminate our already conflicted relationship with nature: How much are we a part of it, and how much are we exceptional?" Very astutely put, in line which much that I've been thinking about. In particular, the notion of our conflicted relationship with something that (I think) we are clearly a part of makes me think of how the most conflicted relationships among humans are often within families . . .

One of my favorite stories in the book was about cleaner wrasses who cheat their clients more often in noisy environments--perhaps the client fish are so distracted they can get away with it?

Twoards the end of the book, the author quotes a scientist expressing "a sentiment that, as a science writer, both breaks my heart and resonates deeply." The sentiment is this: "Don't just try to convince people to love the things you love. I would never go to another country and expect them to take my currency. I would never sit down at a table with a politician and expect them to take my currency, which is love of nature." This is something I'll be thinking about for a while, I expect.

[giada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about how fish and other marine animals communicate, and how noise pollution created by humans is making the ocean a worse place to live in for them.

The thing that weirded me out is that the narrator they chose for the audiobook used the kind of breathy voice they use when reading nonfiction that have an autobiographical note, I don’t know why because this one doesn’t have many personal details — so the whole book sounded sad. I was convinced it was a memoir of some sort at the beginning because of it, kind of like Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist .

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outstanding book if you are a true nature buff.
I listened to the audiobook, hoping some of the ocean wildlife sounds would be included, but no such luck.

[UnderseaDavis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to be convinced that there are cooler users of sound in water than dolphins and whales… the coolest parts of this book focused on dolphins and whales..

But this book was good, I just felt like the Something Amazing I Guess kid from The Incredibles when I finished it

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to this book gave me enormous peace. While the chaos of the world rages, I got to just sit back and learn about ocean noises. The book touches a wide range of topics related to ocean sound, it was extremely pleasant to read, and it makes me want to binge read a bunch of books about whales.

[Sophie Els · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun & short but also somehow felt very long. I think if you do not already have a vested interest in the subject matter it’s probably not for you. Unfortunately I am lame enough to care deeply about how noise affects wildlife underwater so I had a good time with this one

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I think of sounds underwater,I first hear the blubbering of bubbles and that closed off gurgle in the ears making everything seem cut off when I swim. . Then I think of whale songs and Flipper laughing while swimming backwards. My favorite thing I read is that it is thought that fish chorus and may even sing just like birds do as they greet the morning or advertise for a mate. Not only do the sea mammals vocalize, but even the invertebrates, and sea worms and so many kinds of fish. The how's and ways sound is heard is well discussed. The impact that human noise has on ocean environment is explored. Scientists have determined that different family groups of whales have some song sequences unique to themselves . There is even the possibility that they have a rudimentary language amoung different groups. Much of the voices are far too high pitched or very low for human ears to register. Yet, divers may feel a rush of silent sound as sound waves pass by. This book is loaded with great detail on how sound travels in the ocean and the methods of capturing the music beneath the sea. It's just the sort of information to make me love the ocean even more. How delightful to know there is song in the air and in the sea!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book. Picked it up at a bookstore in DC while hanging out with my mother-in-law. The design of the book was fantastic, and the intersection of marine life and sound was really intriguing to me, so I decided to go for it. Very glad I did.

While it could have used another proofread for typos, the writing was phenomenal. A journalistic epic is essentially what it is. Kingdon really did her homework and went above and beyond to gather information and include input from the world’s leading experts on this topic.

Suffice to say, she had me Googling “The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life” conference when I finished the book, tempted to attend it myself.

[Naomi Diep · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.68/5: not really what I was expecting…it was more of a personal story about her journey exploring the ocean as opposed to an informative one. It was mainly about echo location which I feel like if you watched pbs kids as a little tot, you’d already know

[Emily Golus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and explained in such a way that I could follow. Makes me rethink giving up my teenage dream of being a marine biologist!

[Isabelle reads a book a day because she has no friends · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most unique books I have read, and out of a quadruple-digit catalogue of some weird-ass books, that is saying something. I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Ed Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book, but I’m interested in marine biology so much of what was in this book I’d already read about or seen before. Especially the parts about cetaceans. There was a part in the book about “the loneliest whale in the world,” the one that sings at 55hz unlike any other whale. I’d already seen a whole documentary about that. So maybe if you don’t follow things in this realm much, it might be better.

[Lilisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nonfiction was an interesting read on how underwater creatures leverage sound to live. Even though oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water may seem to be quiet to the human ear, it is amazing that under water plentiful sounds are emitted and are heard by creatures - great and small - as they feed, mate, navigate, and much more. The author does a good job bringing years of research together in this book and highlights the detrimental impacts humans are making on underwater creatures. To me, the writing veered more on providing the facts. I felt it would have been great if the facts had been combined with a more engaging and riveting writing style - that would have engaged and captivated me more. So a 3.5 rating rounded up to 4. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Briella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars because it was a gift from my bf. also five stars because I learned that fish talk to each other

[Torie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting exploration of sound underwater- lots of things I never took into account. The surface-level(lol) things like boat noise affecting marine mammals is pretty well-known, but this had some more technical info on things like the physics of sound underwater, the history of (very cruel) animal experimentation, and a surprising focus on military history. Liked it, but wish there was a better flow to the chapter structure.

[Megan Sager · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️ Listen…I love fish! I love the ocean! But this book was boring. All non fiction books tend to be dense which is fine bc I want to learn. But if the structure isn’t well executed… then I’m gonna snooze! And this wasn’t organized well in my opinion. There’s cool stuff in here. It’s just so hard to remember any of it, when everything is so hard to follow.

[kendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free ARC via NetGalley for this book. Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author!

“Sing Like Fish” is a captivating exploration of the often overlooked symphony of sounds beneath the waves. Amorina Kingdon delves into the role that sound plays in marine environments and with flora and fauna, from the behavior of sound in water to the fascinating discoveries we are beginning to understand.

Kingdon provides the historical context of the science behind sound and hearing underwater, incorporating fish, mammals, invertebrates, plankton, and even marine plants, she reveals that the ocean and its inhabitants are far from silent. From mysterious sounds underwater that are still trying to be identified to the noises from critters like the cusk eel, readers are plunged into a vibrant auditory world throughout the ocean.

I was most intrigued and grateful for the inclusion of kelp and plankton in the discussion of underwater sound and impacts. Kingdon explains how kelp forests, beyond their ecological importance, serve as acoustic buffers. The loss of kelp forests means more than just a loss of habitat - it’s a loss of a dynamic acoustic buffer.

The disparity of research funding for acoustics is also given a spotlight in this book. Less charismatic, or species of non-industry interest, are often not given the same access to funding for research, even when they are still important species to understand.

Most importantly, the book explores how our understanding of underwater sound can be applied in conservation efforts. Sound is continually increasing in the ocean, as Kingdon highlights the alarming increases in shipping noise doubling every decade from 1960 to 2010, and how this impacts marine life. Noise pollution isn’t just a threat for marine mammals, but impacts plankton in the water column, invertebrates burrowed in the sand, and other species. While unseen, sound has far-reaching consequences. Kingdon highlights the importance of understanding sound and how applying that knowledge to marine policy and regulation is a vital step in conservation efforts.

“Sing Like Fish” is not just a scientific account but a call to action. Amorina Kingdon’s prose and thorough research invites readers to appreciate the acoustic wonders of the ocean and recognize the urgent need to preserve this aspect of the natural world. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in marine science, conservation, and bioacoustics! Dive deeper into the intricate life beneath the surface of the ocean!

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well researched book discusses the importance of sound waves in the marine ecosystem and how the detrimental amounts of sound pollution are causing long lasting effects.
As a result of oil drilling, large container cargo ships, pile driving in windmill installation, cruise ships and more, much harm is being done to the underwater world.
The author does a great job explaining how climate change and over fishing are already destructive enough but sound pollution is also adding to the decimation of marine life. A topic not commonly pondered yet very important.

[Sandy Broadwill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endlessly fascinating. Covers: how sound travels underwater, how sound is perceived by humans and other animals, how marine mammals use echolocation, the invention of sonar, the history of bioacoustics, the impact of ships and offshore drilling on underwater creatures and soundscapes. This book covers it all, in detail, and tells the stories of the scientists on the leading edge of this research. Exactly my kind of nonfiction. Highly recommend.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely new perspective to life underwater and all its noise. The physics section wasn’t thrilling, but learning about the different ways animals use sound to communicate - drumming swim bladders, grunting, screeching, vibration - and how our activities on water affect them was very cool. Don’t be surprised to see me spending an unnatural amount of time with my head under the water next time I’m in the ocean!!

[Donna Wonsower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the paper version and ultimately think I would have preferred an audiobook, but I think that's just me. A little technical at times but was great to read while having underwater animal sounds playing in the background.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved both the writing and audiobook reader. My favourite part was the fish running away from echolocation by emptying their swim bladders with a “strategic fart.”
I like looking up the different fish sounds on YouTube, especially the midshipmen.