Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Electronics and Fish

All,
I do some podcasts for http://www.bassedge.com and an upcoming question the host, Aaron Martin, wants to ask is, "Does energy produced by your electronics and emitted through the transducer impact the fish?"
I honestly have no idea.
I spent some time online and can't find any science about it.
If anyone knows any facts, please post them. I don't really need a lot of speculation or opinions, but if anyone has any experiences or credible documentation, that would be helpful.

Well that rules out any response that I would have given. Hi Bob, Ricki says Hi as well (no need to respond I know you're busy).

Ice fisherman watch flashers to monitor their jigs and the fish that are about to bite the jig, as far as flashers go they don't seem to bother fish. Transducers might have a different sound production range than flashers though. The answer to your question Bob really comes down to whether or not the sound being emmitted by the tranducer occurs in a fishes detecable sound range or not, if the sound can be localized by the fish, and if it irritates the fish or not. Sound detection occurs at two levls in fish, the inner ear and the lateral line. The speed at which sound moves through water also poses in interesting dilema as far as being able to locate objects by where the sound originated from. As a general rule of thumb low pitched sounds are easier to localize than higher pitched ones, keep in mind that when talking about fish we are also talking about sounds that travel five times faster in water than it does the air, this would make sound localization much more difficult. The otolith may or may not be involved in sound localization in fish as a directional accelerator, more research needs to be done on this area. As a general rule of thumb I like to keep my boat out of the lateral lines sensitivty range which is roughly 25ft for LMB. How is that for a "I really don't know answer?"

I don't have any scientific information but I do know anglers that swear in some bodies of water where the fish are heavily pressured (ice fishing) the sound made by the transducer seems to spook the fish.

I have no doubts they can hear the sound -- at least in shallow water -- as sound is amplified in water and I can hear it if I place my ear on a transducer.

It seems plausible that fish that are heavily pressured and have experienced some catch and release could associate the sound with danger.

Here's one article: http://www.physorg.com/news102869243.html

Another? Another: http://www.fishchaser.net/report/index3.html

I have seen balls of TFS under my boat thick enough to walk on without a stir - guides on Lake Texoma throw cast nets right on top of them....
Striped bass do not spook from electronics but allergic to trolling motors where transducer is mounted...

IMO and experience - no problemo...

Does the electronics impact the fish???
I would agree with Cecil, that fish can most likely detect them if we can underwater. That doesnt mean they are all scared away by them, and some fish are curious and probably drawn to them. The answer I would have to say is IT ALL DEPENDS!

Bob,

When I put my UW-DVR in the water the fish are curious about the camera and will look into the lens, some will peck at it.

After the initial interest, they school up around the camera, seemingly waiting for an audition. When a large predator appears they scatter and then the predator and possibly a predator buddy or two will show up and hang out by the camera.

When anchored over structure with sonar running on both ends of my boat the fish school up under the sonars. This is great for vertical jigging.

There is nothing scientific about these observations, but I think fish may be somewhat attracted by electronics and not fearful of them as some suspect.

Sorry Bob,
I did quite a bit of searching but couldn't come up with anything specific to your ?.
From what I read doing research there is growing interest in discovering the effects of not only electronics but all noise we are introducing into body’s of water on the under water environment. From boat motors to dipping a paddle into the water. Does it have an adverse effect on some tiny infrequent creature. Man is always the bad guy.
But as is evident by the number of members to your PB forum we/man hold our ponds & the life in them in high regard spending much time & prob. too much money to make them as good a home for fish & such as they can be.
That's where I would steer my answer.

Bob I will check Fisheries 2nd tonight and reply. It has a chapter on acoustics in fisheries.

My observation is it does no harm. However I have no doubt that fish can be conditioned to avoid sonar. If , in a pond , they are caught under sonar repeatedly they will become conditioned to avoid it as a negative stimulus.


This study ison its way.

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Induced Aggregation of Pond-Reared Rainbow Trout (Salmo gairdneri) Through Acoustic Conditioning
ROBERT RILEY ABBOTT

Fisheries Research Institute, College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Abstract.—About 90% of the rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) roaming freely in a large pond were conditioned to come to feed at the source of an underwater acoustic stimulus in about 45 trials. The stimulus was a 150-Hz, pure tone broadcasted continuously for one minute before and throughout feeding. The fish showed no tendency to discriminate between the conditioning tone and a 300-Hz tone produced in tests from the same sound source.

DOI: 10.1577/1548-8659(1972)101<35:IAOPRT>2.0.CO;2
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 1972;101:35–43



It is clear that the fish detected an

acoustic phenomenon because of the startle

reaction on presentation of the acoustic stim-

ulus. It is also clear that some, if not all, of

the fish were conditioned to come to the

acoustic source. It may be argued that some

fish were conditioned to come to the acoustic

source, but that the rest were conditioned to

come to the feeding area when the other fish

exhibited a startle reaction. This possibility

seems unlikely; it is more likely that the be-

havior of the fast learners facilitated condi-

tioning of the rest."

Cecil,
"I have no doubts they can hear the sound -- at least in shallow water -- as sound is amplified in water and I can hear it if I place my ear on a transducer."

What kind of reading did you get on your depthfinder when you did this?

Diabolical! LOL

Look at this:

http://www.fishchaser.net/report/index4.html



Looks like maybe it has a positive affect?

Nothing. There's nothing in my head to bounce off of.