Frisky Fish Mating Call Is So Loud It Keeps South Tampa Awake At Night

TAMPA, FL — Scientists think some frisky black drum fish are responsible for the deep reverberating sounds — similar to bass turned up loud on a stereo — that send tremors through South Tampa homes in the middle of the night.

Multiple theories had been floated, according to Tampa resident Sara Healy, who started a GoFundMe campaign aimed at “solving Tampa’s mystery.” Some people thought the constant drumming was from a party boat on the bay, the noise sleuth said on the crowdfunding page. Others blamed it on an underwater military installation. Even aliens were blamed.

The real reason is far more primal, according to James Locascio, a fisheries program manager for the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, who was contacted by Healy to get to the bottom of the mystery.

He said the likely cause is amorous black drum fish, which are in their mating season right now and typically rendezvous at night. The low-frequency drumming sounds are produced when the fish flex their muscles against their swim bladder as they mate, Locascio told news station WTVT.

Underwater sounds don’t typically transfer into the air because water is so much denser than air. But black drum fish make low-frequency sounds that “travel much better and go farther distances.” The sounds can travel through different densities, such as ground and tunnels, and make it into people’s homes.

Locascio’s theory is based on research he did for his dissertation almost two decades ago in southwest Florida.

“They used to call it the Punta Gorda growl in the 1970s,” he told news station WFTS. “So, down there, it’s been going on or known for a long time.”

Black drum fish populations in the Tampa Bay area may have increased so much that the noise is more deafening, Locascio told WTVT.

It’s one explanation for what residents describe as louder and louder drumming each year during the winter mating season.

Abbi Reynolds told the news station she started hearing the drumming noises shortly after she and her family moved into a new house about mile from the bay in South Tampa in 2021. It was louder the next year, sometimes vibrating her pillow, terrifying her son, who was 4 at the time, so much that he crawled into bed with his parents.

In December 2022, the Tampa Bay Police Department reported an uptick in noise complaints with no identifiable source, WTVT reported.

With about half of the $5,500 goal raised on GoFundMe, Locascio plans to place microphones, called hydrophones, underwater for two months to monitor the fish and see if his theory is correct. So far, about three have been placed and more will be submerged as money is raised.

As for Healy, she’s having a blast.

“It seemed a little bit silly for me to be pursuing this so doggedly,” Healy, 45, told The Washington Post. “But on the other level, this is something that’s important to the community.”

To WFTS, she said, “I feel like I’m living my best Nancy Drew life right now.”

Listen to the drum fish.