2. Physical Acoustics of Underwater Sound Communication
47
Figure 2.9. Midshipman fish build nests in the intertidal zone. Shown in this
drawing of a site photographed in northern Washington state are several parental,
type I males that have been revealed by turning over their rocky shelter. Females
are attracted to the nests by the humming mate call of the type I males. Once inside
a nest, a female deposits each egg on the roof of the nest (the underside of the rock),
and the male then fertilizes the egg; the female leaves the nest soon after depositing her eggs. The type I male remains to guard the eggs (depicted as round circles)
and embryos (teardrop shaped) and to sing again to attract more females; the
number of fertilized eggs can be in the thousands for any one nest by the end of a
breeding season.
47
Figure 2.9. Midshipman fish build nests in the intertidal zone. Shown in this
drawing of a site photographed in northern Washington state are several parental,
type I males that have been revealed by turning over their rocky shelter. Females
are attracted to the nests by the humming mate call of the type I males. Once inside
a nest, a female deposits each egg on the roof of the nest (the underside of the rock),
and the male then fertilizes the egg; the female leaves the nest soon after depositing her eggs. The type I male remains to guard the eggs (depicted as round circles)
and embryos (teardrop shaped) and to sing again to attract more females; the
number of fertilized eggs can be in the thousands for any one nest by the end of a
breeding season.