The ocean has proven endlessly mysterious and fascinating to all manner of people across the globe, but for centuries true knowledge of the depths was simply out of reach. As modern technologies advance, science has debunked much once held to be true – including the idea of the “silent world” of the ocean. What was once thought to be a muffled marine landscape with little to no perceptible sounds has now been revealed to be a complex interplay of aquatic acoustics. In her debut book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, science journalist Amorina Kingdon turns up the volume on groundbreaking discoveries in ocean soundscapes, why this research is important to our ecosystems, and how human impact is playing more of a role than science realized.

Sing Like Fish explores how the complexity of oceanic noise goes far deeper than the familiar hits like whale song and crashing currents. Sound travels four times faster in water than in air and its reach in environmental impact is as expansive as the seas themselves. Kingdon educates readers on a plethora of natural sonic relationships that have been recorded under the surface – from individual snapping shrimp and communicating fish to rumbling seismic activity bouncing off the seafloor in regions light cannot reach and the biodiversity concerts that live as coral reefs. These revelations also cast into sharp relief the repercussions of humanity’s presence in our seas. Marine noise pollution takes the form of everything from recreational boating and cruise tourism to the global shipping industry to military forces and oil exploration. As science continues to uncover the splendor and nuance of the ocean as an audible entity, Sing Like Fish reinforces the importance of understanding, protecting, and reveling in the symphony of our seas.

Amorina Kingdon is an award-winning writer and science journalist with a focused fascination in marine biology and coastal environments. She previously served as staff writer and contributor to Hakai Magazine. Her science writing has been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays 2020 (Biblioasis), and her fiction works have been included in PRISM Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Speculative North.

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