Full Description

"Spawning male spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, produce distinctive drumming sounds by compressing the swim bladder with the surrounding muscles to attract mates during their spawning season (Tower 1908, Burkenroad 1931, Fish and Mowbray 1970, Mok and Gilmore 1983)."

"Four distinctive sounds have been described: 1) a"grunt"followed by a series of"knocks': 2)"aggregated grunts': 3) a"long grunt'; and 4) a"staccato"(Mok and Gilmore 1983)."

"The pattern and sound level in decibels (standard settings were 132 db re 11-1 pascal) was used to estimate the size of the drumming aggregation on an ordinal scale ranging from 0 to 5 (i.e., 0: no drumming, 1: single drumming individual, 2: two or three drumming individuals, 3: small drumming aggregation, 4: moderate drumming aggregation, 5: large drumming aggregation)."

"Drumming Cynoscion nebu/osus were recorded from 2002 to 2331 h. This agrees with Holt et at. (1985) and BrownPeterson et at. (1988) who found that Cynoscion nebu/osus on the Texas coast began spawning about one hour before sunset and continued until 2300 hrs."

"Drumming aggregations were located in salinities that ranged from 23 to 27 ppt, dissolved oxygen concentrations that ranged from 6.0 to 8.0 mg I, temperatures that ranged from 27.5 to 28.8 °C, and depths that ranged from 7.6 to 14m. Observed mean water column velocities for aggregations ranged widely, 6 to 70 cm/s."

"In our study, drumming aggregations were not observed in high salinity (>32.5 ppt), beach-front habitats or barrier island passes (Stations 6, 7, 8, and 9) or at low salinity (<16 ppt), up-river locations (Stations 12 and 13). Temperature at non-drumming locations ranged from 28.5 to 29.0°C."

"Spawning conditions reported in the literature are highly variable, particularly for salinity and temperature."

Observation Environment Quotes

"We sampled from 1600 to 2400 h EDT, 2 to 6 August 1990, for sound producing Cynoscion nebulosus at 13 stations around Charleston Harbor, South Carolina (Figure 1). Cynoscion nebulosus drumming sounds were recorded with an Interocean Model 902 hydrophone and a Sony TCS 450 cassette tape recorder."

Behaviour Description Quotes

"Spawning male spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, produce distinctive drumming sounds by compressing the swim bladder with the surrounding muscles to attract mates during their spawning season (Tower 1908, Burkenroad 1931, Fish and Mowbray 1970, Mok and Gilmore 1983)."

"Field recordings were verified against known sound recordings of Cynoscion nebuJosus spawning activity (R. Grant Gilmore, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Inc., Fort Pierce, Florida, pers. comm.)."

Sound Name Quotes

"Spawning male spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, produce distinctive drumming sounds by compressing the swim bladder with the surrounding muscles to attract mates during their spawning season (Tower 1908, Burkenroad 1931, Fish and Mowbray 1970, Mok and Gilmore 1983)."

"Four distinctive sounds have been described: 1) a 'grunt' followed by a series of 'knocks': 2) 'aggregated grunts': 3) a 'long grunt'; and 4) a 'staccato' (Mok and Gilmore 1983)."

"The pattern and sound level in decibels (standard settings were 132 db re 11-1 pascal) was used to estimate the size of the drumming aggregation on an ordinal scale ranging from 0 to 5 (i.e., 0: no drumming, 1: single drumming individual, 2: two or three drumming individuals, 3: small drumming aggregation, 4: moderate drumming aggregation, 5: large drumming aggregation)."