Foraging fish are affected by motorboat noise – a field experiment

Abstract

The negative impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine animals are currently receiving an increasing attention. In order to study the effect of motorboat noise on foraging behaviour in fish, we used two species with different hearing abilities in field enclosures. Eurasian perch and roach are common in the Bothnian sea where the study took place. The roach has a more well-developed sense of hearing than the perch. Groups of fish were fed twice a day, over time periods of thirty minutes, with and without the disturbance of an outboard motor. The trials were repeated for five days. Roach responded to noise exposure with a lower food attack rate and longer time in the vegetation compared to the controls without noise. Perch also showed a lower foraging activity during exposure but gradually increased feeding and time spent in the open area, both with and without noise, indicating habituation.

Keywords

Ecology, Animal behaviour, conservation

Published in

Title: ISBE Poster Abstract Book

Conference

16th congress of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology,

SLU Authors

• Magnhagen, Carin

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/77107