Is the fizzing noise really some kind of shrimp

Wow! I have had the same experience at the end of May 2011 whilst in Gibraltar. It was about 1am when we arrived and as soon as I went to bed I heard this noise and I began to investigate. I concluded in five minutes that it must have been something in the water. I was too tired to think about it any further. Next day we moved and it was gone.
 
Shrimp Noise

The noise is so widespread that it interferes with sonar detection, and during the Cold War the phenomenon was investigated in some depth by the US department of defence.

Yotties only hear the racket if they are reasonably close to a colony - and they seem to like hard weedy surfaces where their prey will be feeding.

Good explanation here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/935855.stm
 
Wow - thanks to the forum I'm a convert to the shrimp explanation!

The video (not the pistol part but the background small shrimp chatter) sounds right. We are amazed that we have never anchored in a bay which has had the shrimps before. If I was writing the cruising guide I think I would mention the shrimp colony ... although perhaps they move home from time to time.

There was a thread a few weeks ago about drinking aboard but if you are anchored in shrimp alley and you want to get any sleep you need quite a few drinks of an evening to dull the senses!

Many thanks to all who contributed.

Richard
 
It's not shrimps, it's fish

Just back from a flotilla holiday in Greece and the first briefing from the lead crew included the advice that we should not be worried if we heard the "bacon frying" noise as it was caused by fish eating the growth on the hull. We checked it out with mask and snorkel and sure enough, there was a school of small fish feasting on the weed etc. I'm sure I have seen a video on You tube since I got back clearly showing a school of fish. I'll try and find it again and post a link.
I agree that when scuba diving, you can hear quite a lot of clicking which may well be shrimps and some big fish make quite a noise. Mating haddock sound like a slow reving outboard engine.
 
actionoptics said:
Just back from a flotilla holiday in Greece and the first briefing from the lead crew included the advice that we should not be worried if we heard the "bacon frying" noise as it was caused by fish eating the growth on the hull.
Click to expand...
I think you'll find young, enthusiastic flotilla staff repeat many myths without researching things fully!
 
Definitely fish not shrimps

RichardS said:
Last night we were the only boat anchored in a bay near Split. As the wind died down around 7pm I could hear this fizzing / crackling sound like someone frying bacon under the boat. SWMBO thought it was an electrical short somewhere so I pulled up all the boards to have a look as it was definitely coming from the underwater section of the hulls (catamaran).

There was nothing to see so I decided it must be the antifoul "fizzing" - OK, ridiculous, but I was running out of ideas!

I looked on Google and found a reference to some kind of shrimp which chatters away but we've been in Croatia for 5 years now and I've never heard anything like it before.

My eldest son could not sleep because of the noise. It was amazingly loud and it was still fizzing away this morning so we moved to another bay a couple of hours away and here it is all peace and quiet!

I can't believe that the noise can be shrimps - there would have to be millions of them and why only in that bay?

Could it be an undersea power cable or something?

Has anyone else heard it - literally like someone frying a pan of bacon under the sole boards!

Richard
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Had the exact same experience in Spain on the Costa Brava, Thought we had a huge electrical fault and boat was going to ignite etc.etc Turned out it was some kind of Mullet things which were sucking the bottom clean in their hundreds. Moved to next marina and hey presto, problem solved !
 
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KevO said:
Shrimps and other small crustacea... hear them all the time while warm water diving... a constant background snap crackle and pop. Confirmed by a Dr of marine zoology from the Nat History museum when we were diving together surveying the coral reefs in the Andaman for tsunami damage in 05. Noisy little devils aren't they :D
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Well you live and learn! I've heard the sound many times when swimming or snorkelling and I thought it was the sound of billions of small pebbles and particles of coarse sand being moved across the seabed by currents and wave action.:o
I've been prompted to do further research and I think I was right.
http://www.dosits.org/files/dosits/wave1.mp3
Unless the sound you are talking about is different?
http://www.dosits.org/audio/agsummary/
 
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FistralG said:
I've heard the sound many times when swimming or snorkelling and I thought it was the sound of billions of small pebbles and particles of coarse sand being moved across the seabed by currents and wave action.:o
I've been prompted to do further research and I think I was right.
Click to expand...

Except that it happens in Med harbours too - no current, no tide, no wave action.
 
FistralG said:
Well you live and learn! I've heard the sound many times when swimming or snorkelling and I thought it was the sound of billions of small pebbles and particles of coarse sand being moved across the seabed by currents and wave action.:o
I've been prompted to do further research and I think I was right.
http://www.dosits.org/files/dosits/wave1.mp3
Unless the sound you are talking about is different?
http://www.dosits.org/audio/agsummary/
Click to expand...

The sound is right FistralG but it does not come and go with the waves - it was absolutely continuous and unbroken from the early evening until we left around 10am.

As Twister_Ken says, although there was a current caused by the wind during the evening this had completely gone by morning and we were drifting around on a glassy sea - and still the frying continued!

Thankfully the bay we are currently anchored in is lovely and peaceful apart from some skinny-dipping Croatians but that is normal out here!

Richard
 
FistralG said:
Well you live and learn! I've heard the sound many times when swimming or snorkelling and I thought it was the sound of billions of small pebbles and particles of coarse sand being moved across the seabed by currents and wave action.:o
I've been prompted to do further research and I think I was right.
http://www.dosits.org/files/dosits/wave1.mp3
Unless the sound you are talking about is different?
http://www.dosits.org/audio/agsummary/
Click to expand...

Yes, I think the sound is different. I've always likened it to old-fashioned cellophane being crumpled, but that is not such a familiar sound these days. "Snapping shrimp" from the 2nd URL is more like it. To get similar sharp clicks from gravel I think you would have to be dropping it in air.

It's amazing that the sound is so loud and clear when filtered through GRP. But then there are ultrasonic sensors that work through GRP, too...

Mike.
 
KenF

I've only experienced this in Greece and spent anxious moments sniffing for the characteristic burning smell of an electrical 'short' - that's exactly what it sounds like. I think they called it 'blue lightning' - it is said to be small fish nibbling algae off the hull with their teeth, a bit like the way they nibble the dead skin off your feet in these foot bath places I imagine - and very good they are at it, I recommend it wholeheartedly - well worth a fiver.
 
We too have always called it rice-crispy water. We have found it often when anchored in Turkey. After checking the whole boat the first time, thinking a battery was boiling, or something hot leaking, we have got used to it.

We only hear it at night in very calm conditions. We used to think it was gas bubbles coming out of the silt, but subsequently have heard it on all kinds of sea bed. Whatever it is there are thousands of them, as it's a constant loud fizzing noise, and sometimes very loud.

We get it even when the boat is newly anti-fouled so I don't think it is weed being nibbled. Also I can clearly hear it when floating in the sea at night and I am fairly sure I would know if I was being nibbled ! The water is crystal clear and I haven't seen anything round me but phosphorescence.
 
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