Farting Herring and Other Fish that Break Wind

 Boom-boom, duck call, honker and whopper are some of the many names it goes by. But in layman terms, we call it ‘farting’. Considered to be a mammalian feature, researchers have discovered that our sea-dwelling friends too exhibit the tendency to thunder from down under.

Marine researchers Bob Batty, Ben Wilson and Larry Dill made an outstanding and super-hilarious discovery in 2003 - fish fart. For their unique discovery, the trio was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize, given for highly improbable scientific discovers that initially make people laugh; and then make them think.

When studying Pacific and Atlantic herrings off the coast of Canada and Scotland, the researchers discovered the fish expelling gas from their bodies. When recorded on camera, the sounds (and the bubbles released) resembled human farts underwater. What caught the scientists’ attention was how the fish synchronized the expelling of gas, like that of an orchestra.

Upon further research, the trio realized that the farts produced by the fish weren’t fecal gas and didn’t serve a digestive purpose. The so-called ‘farts’ were in reality fresh oxygen that the fish inhaled through their mouths and exhaled through their anuses, in an attempt to communicate.

The trio of Batty, Wilson and Dill went as far as feeding the fish to check if the farts changed in any way (as they would if they served a digestive purpose). But, they discovered that the sounds and the bubbles remained the same.

Tooting their own horn

Herrings are one of the very few fish who have been recorded producing fart-like noises underwater. Scientists say these herring farts resemble the high-pitched sound a raspberry makes when squeezed.

Although not verified, researchers believe that these high-pitched noises are produced by herrings in an attempt to keep the shoal together after dark. Some scientists have taken a step further in this direction and have claimed that the ‘farts’ could be how individual herrings communicate with each other when part of a massive shoal. Given how the noises start only at night, scientists believe that the high-frequency vocalizations could also be a way to help lost or straggling herrings get back to the safety of the shoal.

-Nisha Prakash