Hand in Fin: Exploring Reciprocity Between Humans and Fishes Through Music

Abstract

The relationship between fish and humans in the sonic realm is one that has yet to be explored in an anthropological context. Exploring this relationship provides us with an important new understanding: there is a reciprocal sonic relationship between humans and fish which must be considered in both biological conservation efforts and when understanding the lives of fish-adjacent peoples and communities. I provide a brief overview into the complex and diverse systems that fish use to hear and how noise influences their lives, and examine findings from biological studies that describe how fish react to human-generated noise. Then, I delve into a select few cases that describe how fish and fishing appear in human music and the meanings that these songs communicate. This research reveals that just as humans have the potential to have deep, yet poorly understood, impacts on the aquatic realm of fishes through our sound and music, changes in fish and fishing appear in our sound and music.