Mechanisms of Hearing by Clupeid Fishes

鱼类撞击水电站大坝和发电厂取水口是美国许多地区的一个严重问题。问题有两个方面。首先，许多鱼在遇到水坝或进水口时被杀死，无法逃离湍急的水流。其次，由于大量的鱼类撞击，发电设备有潜在的损坏。因此，找到防止鱼类与大坝或发电厂进水口之间的相互作用的方法具有相当重要的经济意义。到目前为止开发的最成功的方法之一是使用高频声音来驱赶团头鱼(鲱鱼和近亲)远离这些障碍。由于未知的原因，这些具有重要商业价值的物种远离了这些声音。同时，我们对杆类动物如何探测到超声波，或者是哪种声音可以最成功地用来击退鱼，知之甚少。这项研究的目的是为了更好地了解蝙蝠是如何探测声音的，以及它们探测到哪些声音，最终目的是开发出更有效地防止棍虫撞击大坝和发电厂进水口的方法。

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.