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Science Quickly

Boat Noise Means Fish Can't Learn Their Lessons

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2018

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Damselfish had trouble learning to avoid predators, when that lesson was accompanied by a soundtrack of buzzing boat engines. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp.j. That's y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

0:33.5

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:38.9

If you've ever gone snorkeling or scuba diving, you know how peaceful it sounds under there.

0:45.2

Aside from the crackling sound of snapping shrimp.

0:48.9

Compare that to a reef with boat traffic.

0:54.0

Not quite as calming.

0:56.0

And it gets on under-sea creatures' nerves, too.

0:58.7

Stressing out spiny lobsters, slowing the development of sea slugs.

1:02.6

And now scientists have found one more side effect of noise, impaired learning abilities for fish.

1:08.0

That studies in the proceedings of the Royal Society B.

1:11.5

Researchers started by teaching juvenile damselfish in the laboratory about the predators they'd

1:16.2

encounter once they settled on an Australian reef. The training consisted of injecting the

1:21.0

damselfish's tanks with seawater, fouled with both the scent of a predator and alarm

1:25.7

cues from injured damselfish.

1:33.0

It's a message that, hey, this predator smell, it means dead friends, maybe dead you.

1:37.8

To reinforce that lesson, they also lowered Ziploc bags with the predators themselves into the damselfish's tanks, together with the scents, to teach them.

1:42.1

These guys are your enemies.

1:44.2

They conducted all this training to a soundtrack of peaceful reef sounds,

...

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