Beneath the water lies a whole world of sound: snorts, boops, croaks, grunts. Fish, it turns out, have a lot to say, and they’ve been communicating for a long time. In this episode, we take a dive with some of the planet’s oldest vertebrates 

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

We want to hear from you! Send us your questions about the new season, the content or how it’s made, for an upcoming behind-the-scenes episode. You can submit your questions to [email protected] 

Special thanks to Lauren Hawkins, Miles Parsons, and Tim Lamont for many of the fish recordings. Clara Amorim and Raquel Vasconcelos recorded the Lusitanian toadfish, Herbert Tiepelt recorded the pikeperch percussionist, and Marta Bolgan provided the “unknown kwa.” Additional recordings came from more than a dozen other scientists, many of whom have contributed sounds to the website Fishsounds.

Here are the fish sounds we used in the episode:

160000_Parsons_Blackspotted croaker chorus

130000_Picciulin_Brown meager_Chorus

180000_Pine_Unknown_Chorus

170000_Parsons_Unknown_Chorus

180000_Dilorio_Unknown_Kwa Chorus

190000_Bolgan_Unknown_Kwa

050000_Tiepelt_Pike-perch_Scrape

070000_Stolkin_Striped Cusk-eel_Jackhammer chorus

180000_Staaterman_Toadfish_Boop-Grunt-Swoop

150000_Casaretto_Haddock_hum

080000_Amorim_Lusitania Toadfish_Boatwhistle_edited

1970_MP Fish_Seahorse_Click

170000_RountreeR_Aplodinotus-grunniens_Drum-Call-Chorus

180000_Rowell_Epinephelus striatus_agonistic

050000_AmorimC_Eutrigla-gurnardus_Growl-Grunt-Knock

180000_AmorimC_Pomatoschistus-pictus_Drum

Mentioned in this episode:

We're So Close

This giving season listening matters. To keep making our show, Threshold needs to raise $75,000 by the end of the year — and we’re over 85% of the way there!

Threshold is listener-funded.To keep making this work and sharing it with audiences for free, we have to raise $75,000 by the end of the year — and we’re over 80% of the way there! If you haven’t chipped in yet, consider making a gift today.