The CODCAST – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode follows marine biologist Amalis Riera through the process of discovering a faint but critical sound: the grunt of an Arctic cod. Riera explains how she discovered the sound producing abilities of Arctic cod and why this is important for conservation of the Arctic. This grunt has spurred a multi-year research project exploring everything about this fish and the sounds they make.

The Codcast is produced by John William Last, in association with the Juanes Lab at the University of Victoria. The project is funded by the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB)

Episode Highlights:
    - How we discovered the Arctic cod grunt
    - Why the identification of this sound important, and what we can learn from it
    - The importance of conserving Arctic cod to the Arctic ecosystem   

Researchers Interviewed:

Amalis Riera:
Amalis is a Biologist from Spain who came to Victoria (BC) to do an MSc. in killer whale acoustics, which led to the expansion of the Endangered Southern Residents critical habitat. She studied cetacean occurrence around Vancouver Island with DFO, and then returned to UVic to study fish sounds. She described for the first time the sounds of Arctic cod, sablefish, and walleye pollock, and worked with an amazing team to create the FishSounds.net website. Her latest research revolved around the Arctic marine ecosystem, and included the acoustic detection of marine mammals and Arctic gadids. She has been working in management of BC freshwater invasive fauna since 2023 with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Amalis Riera LinkedIn.

Additional resources:  

Read Riera’s original research paper describing the sounds of Arctic cod in captivity

Check out more fish sounds from the University of Rhode Island’s Sound in the Sea project 

The production of this podcast is an outreach initiative part of the core NPRB funded research project 2103: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida): seasonality and demography of their sound production

Learn more about John William Last, the producer of the Codcast 

In this episode we ask: What sound does a fish make? It turns out the answer is a long and diverse list of sounds that includes the grunt of an Arctic cod. We talk to leading experts in fish sounds and fish physiology to explain how Arctic cod produce their grunts and begin to understand why they grunt in the first place.   

The Codcast is produced by John William Last, in association with the Juanes Lab at the University of Victoria.

Episode Highlights:
- An introduction to the study of fish sounds 
- Exploring the sounds that fish make, how these sounds are produced and what they are used for
- Fun fact: Fish farts are actually fish sounds
- Getting to the bottom of sound production for Arctic cod 

 Researchers Interviewed:

Rodney Roundtree: A.K.A. The Fish Listener. I have been a pioneer in passive acoustics for almost 3 decades and have maintained a web page on fish ecology since 1998 (www.fishecology.org) including a library of fish sounds and a children’s book. I have conduced research in the deep-sea, Amazon jungle, coastal estuaries, and many freshwater habitats. I received my Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1992, and am now retired, but continue passive acoustic research in many areas. 

Eric Parmentier: I research the functional and evolutionary morphology of fish species. I am a professor at the University of Liege in Belgium. Eric Parmentier Wesbite (https://www.morfonct.uliege.be/cms/c_4463047/fr/morfonct-repertoire?uid=U179121)

Amalis Riera: Amalis is a Biologist from Spain who came to Victoria (BC) to do an MSc. in killer whale acoustics, which led to the expansion of the Endangered Southern Residents critical habitat. She studied cetacean occurrence around Vancouver Island with DFO, and then returned to UVic to study fish sounds. She described for the first time the sounds of Arctic cod, sablefish, and walleye pollock, and worked with an amazing team to create the FishSounds.net website. Her latest research revolved around the Arctic marine ecosystem, and included the acoustic detection of marine mammals and Arctic gadids. She has been working in management of BC freshwater invasive fauna since 2023 with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Amalis Riera LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amalisr/?originalSubdomain=ca)

Additional resources: 

Read Rodney Rountree’s multimedia e-book Listening to Fish: New Discoveries in Science, suitable for kids grades 5-12 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256483583_Listening_to_Fish_New_Discoveries_in_Science)

Check out the FishSounds website, featuring recordings of over 1000 fish species  (https://fishsounds.net/)

Read more about the FishSounds project (https://www.uvic.ca/news/archive/topics/2022+fishsounds-online-library+media-release)

Read Xavier Mouy’s research paper describing the development of portable audio-video arrays used to identify fish sounds in the wild (https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210X.14095)

Read about new passive acoustics tools used to identify fish sounds in the wild (https://www.uvic.ca/science/home/news/current/passive-acoustics-tools.php)

Explore the University of Rhode Island’s Sound in the Sea project. (https://dosits.org/)

The production of this podcast is an outreach initiative part of the core NPRB funded research project 2103: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida): seasonality and demography of their sound production (https://nprb.org/project-search/#metadata/d97512b8-c9ef-4751-bb14-477697dd9426/project)

Learn more about John William Last, the producer of the Codcast (https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-william-last-30aab034/?originalSubdomain=it)

This episode explores the rising impact of anthropogenic – or human caused – sound in the ocean. Experts in underwater noise are interviewed about how increasing noise pollution is affecting not only Arctic cod but all animals that call the ocean home. 

The Codcast is produced by John William Last, in association with the Juanes Lab at the University of Victoria.

Episode Highlights:
- Identifying activities that cause human made noise in the ocean
- Exploring how human-made noise affects fish
- Will increasing noise in the Arctic effect Arctic cod?

Researchers Interviewed:

Matt Pine: Matt Pine completed his PhD at the University of Auckland in New Zealand before completing post-doctoral fellowships in bioacoustics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He is now Director of Ocean Acoustics Ltd, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Life and Earth Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in the UK and Principal Scientist at Styles Group Underwater Acoustics in Auckland, NZ, where he continues research in marine bioacoustics and creates real-time AI buoys for tracking marine mammals. Matt Pine Website (https://mattpineresearch.weebly.com/about.html)

Francis Juanes: Francis Juanes is the Liber Ero Chair for Fisheries Research and a Professor at the University of Victoria. Francis’ interests lie at the intersection of behaviour, ecology and conservation of fishes and marine invertebrates. His team studies underwater soundscapes with a focus on quantifying the effects of noise on fish and marine mammal communication, and also investigates the early life of Pacific salmon once they have entered the ocean. Juanes Lab Website (https://juaneslab.weebly.com/)

Craig Radford: Craig Radford Obtained a PhD from Waipapa Tuamata Rau University of Auckland and currently a Professor of Marine Science in the Institute of Marine Science at the same University.  I am world leader in soundscape ecology and understanding how marine animals (namely fish and crustaceans) sense and use underwater sound.  My research involves a multi-disciplinary approach, involving physics, physiology, anatomy, and behaviour.  Craig Radford, University of Auckland (https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/c-radford)

Additional resources:

Learn more about (ocean noise and why it’s important https://www.uvic.ca/news/archive/topics/2021+ocean-noise-study+news)

Read about the results of a (meta-analysis on the effect of aquatic noise on fish behaviour and physiology https://www.uvic.ca/news/archive/topics/2018+aquatic-noise-kieran-cox-francis-juanes+media-release)

Explore the University of Rhode Island’s (Sound in the Sea project. https://dosits.org/)

The production of this podcast is an outreach initiative part of the core (NPRB funded research project 2103: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida): seasonality and demography of their sound production  https://nprb.org/project-search/#metadata/d97512b8-c9ef-4751-bb14-477697dd9426/project)

Learn more about (John William Last https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-william-last-30aab034/?originalSubdomain=it), the producer of the Codcast