Sharks Aren't Silent After All. This One Clicks Like a Castanet
This is the first evidence of sound production in a shark.
Jordan StricklerbyJordan Strickler March 27, 2025 in Animals, News, Oceanography Reading Time: 3 mins read
Edited and reviewed by Mihai Andrei
Turns out, sharks aren’t completely silent after all. (Credit: Paul Caiger, University of Auckland).
For centuries, sharks have patrolled the oceans as silent phantoms—seen, feared, but never heard. But in a small tank in New Zealand, one of them clicked.
The spotted estuary smoothhound, or “rig shark”, a modest little shark with mosaic teeth and a fondness for crustaceans, shattered oe of marine biology’s long-held assumptions with a burst of unexpected sound. This new evidence, published in Royal Society Open Science, suggests that a shark’s acoustic repertoire may be more complex.
Sharks are not silent
In a series of lab observations, juvenile rigs were moved from their holding tanks into experimental enclosures for standard hearing tests. Using a hydrophone—an underwater microphone—the team captured a series of loud, broadband clicks, each synchronized with the shark flexing its body.
Careful analysis confirmed that the clicks originated from the sharks themselves, with some reaching up to 156 decibels, measured at 30 centimeters from the source. Most of the energy was concentrated in the 2 to 18 kilohertz range, which ironically exceeds the sharks’ own hearing ability.
More:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/oceanography/sharks-arent-silent-after-all-this-one-clicks-like-a-castanet/
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