Male midshipman fish try to ‘out-hum’ each other in a bid to find a mate, scientists say, and the sound may be amplified as it bounces off Hythe’s buildings.
Fish having noisy sex could be keeping residents in southern England wide awake at night.
Citizens in Hythe have been forced to sleep at friends’ houses for the past week due to a mysterious nighttime hum.
Locals were initially baffled by the bizarre sound.
“I thought I was going mad at first,” sleepy resident Linda Zammit told The Sun.
“A few times we put it down to a neighbor’s washing machine or dishwasher but it’s happening so frequently that we know it’s not the case,” Maria Dennett added.
But scientists now think midshipman fish mating in a nearby estuary could be to blame.
The males reportedly try to “out-hum” each other in a bid to find a partner, and the sound can become amplified when bounced off buildings.
“It’s not beyond the realms of possibility,” said Dr. Ben Wilson, from the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
“There are certainly ‘sonic fish’ in the north Atlantic and the approaches to the English Channel,” he added.
Read more: NY Daily
Hmmm