Mechanisms of Hearing by Clupeid Fishes

在美国许多地区，鱼类进入水电站大坝和发电厂取水口是一个严重的问题。问题是双重的。首先，许多鱼在遇到水坝或进水口时被杀死，无法逃离快速流动的水。其次，由于大量的鱼被撞击，有可能损坏发电设备。因此，寻找防止鱼类与水坝或发电厂进水口相互作用的方法具有相当重要的经济意义。迄今为止开发的最成功的方法之一是使用高频声音将鱼（鲱鱼及其近亲）从这些障碍物中驱逐出去。由于未知的原因，这些商业上重要的物种会远离这些声音。与此同时，我们对鱼是如何探测超声波的知之甚少，也不知道哪种声音最能成功地击退鱼。本研究的目的是为了更好地了解clupeids的听力能力，以便更好地了解它们如何检测声音，以及它们检测哪些声音，最终目标是开发更有效地防止clupeids对水坝和发电厂进水口的影响的方法。

Impingement of fish into hydroelectric dams and water intakes to power plants is a significant problem in many parts of the United States. The problems are two-fold. First, many fish are killed when they encounter the dams or intakes and cannot escape the rapidly flowing water. Second, there is potential damage to the power generating equipment due to the large number of impinged fish. Thus, it is of considerable economic importance to find ways to prevent the interactions between fish and the dams or power plant intakes. One of the most successful methods developed to date is the use of high frequency sound to repel clupeid fishes (herrings and relatives) from these obstacles. For reasons that are yet unknown, these commercially important species swim away from these sounds. At the same time, we know very little about how clupeids detect the ultrasonic sounds, or the kinds of sounds that can be most successfully used to repel the fish. The purpose of this study is to examine the hearing ability of clupeids in order to better understand how they detect sounds, and which sounds they detect, with the ultimate goal being to develop methods to more effectively prevent the impingement of clupeids at dams and power plant intakes.