Reef Fish Seek Noise When House Hunting

WASHINGTON - Silence is not golden for young fish who prefer to call home a reef situated in a noisy locale. Between shrimp clacking their claws, the grinding of teeth and other fishy sounds, reefs can be noisy places, and juvenile fish returning from the open ocean gravitate to the din, according to a study published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
After hatching on a reef, many fish drift out to sea where they mature and, once they become strong swimmers, return to reefs to live and breed.
A team of researchers led by Stephen D. Simpson of Edinburgh University in Scotland wanted to know how the fish find their way back.