strange sounds in the night

[mike66]

Thanks all! We have moved north to the NE corner of the anchorage in 18ft. See what happens...
Maybe they were just cleaning the bottom...

[kathylsails]

We hear those noises, too, when we anchor in Cape Lookout and Beaufort. We've heard that the popping/snapping noises are shrimp, but we didn't know what the louder noises were. When we had our Island Packet sailboat, which used seawater to flush the head, we had all sorts of phosphorescent light shows whenever we flushed!

[mike66]

Just had a great night's sleep in our new position in the NE corner of the anchorage. Couple of softer episodes but not bad. So Mr. Leonard has made the correct call. Thanks again for all your input! Wow who would think fish could be so loud?

[RobS]

Good to hear, how much water do you have under you now, about 15ft?

[special k]

i, also have noticed the "woodpecker" like sounds at anchor in new harbor. all near dinghy beach and never anywhere else. as an avid outdoorsman and mad crazy fisherman i would never have guessed juvenile blackfish as the source of the sounds. (and i am still skeptical) i have caught hundreds if not a thousand blackfish of all sizes and never heard them emit any sounds. i always thought birds or insects indigenous to block island. can anyone explain how these fish produce such sounds? this inquiring mind would love to know!

[mike66]

Good to hear, how much water do you have under you now, about 15ft?

We are in 11ft at today's low tide.

[Marcy K]

found this on the internet from Cornell Labs:

Tautog produce deep thumps and barklike grunts in the field,
probably in response to alarming stimuli (Fish 1954). They
also
produce escape sounds and thumps during feeding in the laboratory.
The sonic mechanism is their large swim bladder vibrated by
contraction of skeletal muscle, striking or rubbing of the ribs, and
drum
-
beating motions of the opercles (Fish and Mowbray
1970).
Tautog exhibit a typical labrid diet behavioral pattern of high activity
during daylight hours and nearly complete inactivity at night (Olla et
al. 1974; Arendt et al. 2001a). From ultrasonic tracking studies, Olla
et al. (1974) found that initiatio
n and cessation of activity varied
somewhat relative to morning and evening civil twilight. Activity
began from 10 min before to 69 min after the start of morning
twilight. Cessation of activity was more variable, ranging from 222
min before to 69 min afte
r the end of evening twilight. In Chesapeake
Bay,
mean daily activity began at sunrise and ceased at sunset,

Am going to see if I can find the link to squid. I know there are some shrimp - called "snapping shrimp" but I believe that their range is further south from us.

Marcy K
A 34 Paumanok 1986
Falmouth/Redbrook Harbor MA

[zinbaad]

Damn termites

[jleonard]

I guess I should have known NOT to believe anything the RI DEP said

[jleonard]

I found an article saying the noise was from a cusk eel. If you google "cusk eel block island" you,ll find the article.
I also googled "clicking fish" and found a website that had a wav file of the sound and wife and I agreed it was at match.

Read article below

http://www.pointseast.com/archives/040701eel-ad.shtml

[DougSea]

...cusk eel block island

I love AOG! Where else would I learn this?!?

Thanks Jay!

[mike66]

I found an article saying the noise was from a cusk eel. If you google "cusk eel block island" you,ll find the article.
I also googled "clicking fish" and found a website that had a wav file of the sound and wife and I agreed it was at match.

Read article below

http://www.pointseast.com/archives/040701eel-ad.shtml

That's it!!! Thanks for the research and putting an end to the mystery.