This weekend we went to Crystal Waters Florida and recorded various sounds of the marine life. We took a boat out to theses specific locations including Kings Point Bay, Shell Island, and Mouth of Rainbow River. Here we captured some bizarre sounds of Dolphins communicating, thousands of shrimp feeding, and the distant moan of the Hypostomus Plecostomus catfish. (Headphones highly recommended). These recordings where captured using the Aquarian Audio H2a-XLR hydrophones, and Sound Devices 702 Digital recorder. Original files recorded at 24-bit-96khz.


Hydrophone Recordings of Dolphins, Shrimp Feeding, and Hypostomus Plecostomus Fish

Underwater sound recording of the stridulations of a lesser water boatman, which gets the credit for being the loudest animal relative to its size. Males attract females with this ‘courtship song’, produced by rubbing their penis against their belly, in a process similar to how crickets chirp.

"The aquatic insect's songs peaked at 105 decibels, roughly equivalent to the volume of a pounding jackhammer within arm's reach. The chirps are loud enough that humans can hear the sounds while standing at the edge of a boatman's pond. Fortunately for nature lovers, though, nearly all the sound is lost when the noises cross from water to air." (National Geographic online, 2022)

Species: Lesser water boatman (Corixa punctata)
Date and time of recording: 23 March 2022, 2.45pm
Location: Lurgan river, Belcoo, County Fermanagh, Ireland
Habitat: Freshwater river/lake
Gear: Aquarian Audio H2a hydrophone, Sound Devices 744t recorder

LESSER WATER BOATMAN

Enregistrement d'insectes aquatiques dans la réserve naturelle du parque morelos à Toluca - Mexique.
réalisé à l'hydrophone

Insectes - Parque Morelos

This is an underwater soundscape collected in a wetland pond in Habataki Park in Fukuoka City (recorded by custom-made hydrophone).
Since the sound could only be heard at the base of the clustered reeds, I assume it was the sound of bubbles from the photosynthesis of the reeds.
The recording is laced with the noise of the reeds swaying in the wind and interfering with the hydrophone cable, as well as the sound of an airplane passing overhead.

Underwater Sound of Habataki Park_20240519_1stPond_Plants?

On a bright and sunny mid-March day, the pond is warming up with sounds.
This is my most detailed recording of Corixa punctata (aka Lesser water boatman) to date.

Can the Lesser and Greater families be told apart through sound alone? Please let me know. What seems clear is that it is possible to discern between some lesser varieties, as demonstrated by Marco Presente in this recording:
https://soundcloud.com/marco-pesente/micronecta-sp-lesser-water

**The sounds get really loud and right at the peak of the Fletcher-Munson curve so please take care of your ears**

Species: Lesser Water Boatman (Corixa punctata)
Location: Middle Spernal, Warwickshire, UK
Date and time: 19 March 2025, 13h30
Habitat: Freshwater pond, wetland

Gear
Aquarian Audio A5s, Zoom F3

Water Boatmen

Underground recording of Pachnoda marginata peregrina (aka sun beetle, aka Congo rose chafer, aka taxicab beetle) larvae in captivity at the London Zoo.

Larvae of many Coleoptera (beetle) families possess stridulatory organs. Stridulations are actively produced sounds for communication created by rubbing together certain body parts*

It is still (March 2025) unclear why beetle larvae produce these sounds, though communication (attracting mates or warning other insects) is the prime theory.

Gear
Aquarian Audio H2A hydrophones, Sound Devices 744T recorder

Larvae pic by Biotropic (on Flickr.com) CC 2.0

*Görres, CM., Chesmore, D. Active sound production of scarab beetle larvae opens up new possibilities for species-specific pest monitoring in soils. Sci Rep 9, 10115 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46121-y

Beetle Larvae Song

Aquatic life in the pond.
Location: Switzerland, Sihlwald, Gloecklifroschteich (8.553700 / 47.273119)
Date: 2025/07/10 13:02:08
Recording: Sound Devices MixPre-6, Aquarian Audio Hydrophones H2a XLR (x2)
Postprocessing: C4

20250710 130208 CH Sihlwald Underwater Life in the Pond

Penghu Experimental Sound Studio
www.tumblr.com/penghusound
by Yannick Dauby 澎葉生
www.kalerne.net

Underwater Recording
Equipment = Zoom H5 / Aquarian Audio H2c with USB battery in underwater enclosure
Date/Time = 12.07.2025 14:30
GPS = 23.515714, 119.572440
Habitat = coral reef
Note = Autonomous recorder running during 24h. This extract features loud clicks by snapping shrimps, knocking sounds by damselfishes, boomy sounds probably by Pomacanthus Semicirculatus. Depth approx. 2-3 meters, high tide, about one week after a typhoon. Please use headphones or decent loudspeakers.

250712 JINGAN 井垵

Enregistrement hydrophonique, Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Ermenonville, France), 2017.

Sound Devices 722; Aquarian Audio H2a-XLR hydrophones.

Étang du Gouffre - Aube

Every Night Me

Penghu Experimental Sound Studio
www.kalerne.net
by Yannick Dauby 澎葉生

Underwater Recording
Equipment = Zoom H5 / Aquarian Audio H2c with USB battery in underwater enclosure
Date/Time = from 25.07.2020 12:03 to 26.07.2020 15:42
GPS = 23.515714, 119.572440
Habitat = coral reef
Note = Autonomous recorder running during 24h. This extract was recorded on 25.07.2020 around 12:06 it features snapping shrimps (of course) and damselfishes and in the lower frequency (50-90Hz) a drumming sound that is probably the stressed warning call of Pomacanthus Semicirculatus (Semicircle angelfish). It was observed (and disturbed, sorry) when deploying the recorder and was swimming around. To be confirmed

200725 - Pomacanthus Semicirculatus

Creation as production of process and reality(=treatment).

Every Night Me

Studio Marusan