Newly discovered grunting sounds coming from Arctic cod are providing University of Victoria scientists with clues about the species, which is the centre of a new UVic podcast series – called the Codcast – that launched on April 15.
The grunting sound, first discovered by former UVic research associate Amalis Riera in 2017, is now the focus of a multi-pronged research project that aims to advance Arctic cod conservation efforts.
“As the Arctic is changing, we’re struggling to monitor or even get a good baseline understanding of current Arctic cod population health using traditional survey methods,” said Francis Juanes, Liber Ero chair for Fisheries Research, in a news release. “Our ultimate goal is to gain a strong enough understanding of Arctic cod sounds to be able to employ passive acoustics to monitor and track the population.”
Researchers are working to describe the Arctic cod sounds, identify how the sounds are being used, answer questions around seasonality, especially as it relates to spawning, and determine the physiology of how the sound is produced.
According to the release, the Arctic cod is a "critically important" species as it’s the most abundant fish in the Arctic, representing 92 per cent of the fish in some areas, and is a food source for many other species.
"Despite the very large and important role Arctic cod play in the Arctic ecosystem, we still lack a clear understanding of some of their basic ecology, such as their movement patterns and spawning locations," noted the release.
The Codcast interweaves background information on fish sounds, ocean noise pollution and conservation applications with updates on the research project to date. The story of the discovery of the Arctic cod grunt and what the research team has learned about the sound so far is available on all podcast apps, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
