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Strange West Seattle noise not from fish

September 12, 2012 @ 3:26 am

The mystery remains in West Seattle, with UW experts doubting the cause of a bizarre hum.

A resident recorded the noise after midnight weeks ago and told the West Seattle Blog about the industrial-sounding hum.

Scientists at the University of Washington's Marine Biology program believed a creature none of us had heard of must be causing it.

The Midshipman fish has an odd mating call and nearby buildings or ships could be acting as a giant sub-woofer carrying the low frequency sound for miles.

UW researcher Joseph Sisneros, an expert on acoustic communication in fishes as his bio explains, updated Tracy Record and her West Seattle Blog team on his conclusion after placing an underwater microphone in several locations off West Seattle.

He says they found "no evidence or data that the Midshipman is present in West Seattle."

"After hearing about the strange reports of the hum in West Seattle, we were intrigued that perhaps the midshipman might be heard near shore if the calls were possibly transmitted via tanker or boat hulls. There was a famous story from Sausalito, CA in the 1980s when the mating calls of midshipman were heard to resonate through the houseboat hulls and drove the resident community crazy. There were all kinds of theories back then what the strange hum could be. Later the local fish biologist determined it was the midshipman’s mating call that was the source of the hum.

With that said, it would be impossible for the resonating hum to be transmitted very far inland into West Seattle, especially to places in the center of West Seattle where some of the 'hums' have been reported on the West Seattle Blog! My guess is the sounds that are being heard are man-made."

Midshipman

Poor little Midshipman fish. Not only do people consider him "ugly," they also blamed it for an odd humming sound originating somewhere in West Seattle. It wasn't his fault, researchers now say.

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Comments (6)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Mating call of the midshipman....
    September 12, 2012 6:02 am
    can be clearly heard in any number of popular bars in Seattle, especially when the fleet's in.
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  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    @ChuckGould.........
    September 12, 2012 6:11 am
    That was clever and made me laugh.

    On another note: Scientists at the U of W need to get real and take a break from the formaldehyde.

    Even an apprentice listener like me can tell the difference in tone and frequency generation between that fish and whatever else is making that hum.

    Definitely man made boys and girls.......or is it?? OoooooOoooooOOOOOOO

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  • Levy Pants wrote...
    Drilling
    September 12, 2012 9:55 am
    Aren't they drilling an underground tunnel for light rail? My guess is it would be that resonating off underground faults.
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  • 333 wrote...
    it's happening everywhere
    September 12, 2012 1:50 pm
    google it
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  • s-m-r-tblond wrote...
    Funny thing...
    September 12, 2012 4:11 pm
    The noise stopped as soon as the story broke. Haven't heard it since. Coincidence??
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  • roomtemp wrote...
    Like 333 said...
    September 13, 2012 8:50 am
    These noises are happening at various places all over the globe. I've even heard some pretty strange ones around here a few times. It's an odd sensation because to the listener the noises are not localized at all. They sound like they are coming from all directions at once.

    My wildly speculative guess is... As earth's magnetic field is reorienting itself (north pole moving about 40 miles a year and accelerating) the flux lines change and cause minerals in the ground, and even the air itself, to resonate. Sort of like a planet sized 'singing Tesla coil' or auroral noise. ;-)

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