This episode follows marine biologist Amalis Riera through the process of discovering a faint but critical sound: the grunt of an Arctic cod. Riera explains how she discovered the sound producing abilities of Arctic cod and why this is important for conservation of the Arctic. This grunt has spurred a multi-year research project exploring everything about this fish and the sounds they make.

The Codcast is produced by John William Last, in association with the Juanes Lab at the University of Victoria. The project is funded by the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB)

Episode Highlights:
- How we discovered the Arctic cod grunt
- Why the identification of this sound important, and what we can learn from it
- The importance of conserving Arctic cod to the Arctic ecosystem

Researchers Interviewed:

Amalis Riera:
Amalis is a Biologist from Spain who came to Victoria (BC) to do an MSc. in killer whale acoustics, which led to the expansion of the Endangered Southern Residents critical habitat. She studied cetacean occurrence around Vancouver Island with DFO, and then returned to UVic to study fish sounds. She described for the first time the sounds of Arctic cod, sablefish, and walleye pollock, and worked with an amazing team to create the FishSounds.net website. Her latest research revolved around the Arctic marine ecosystem, and included the acoustic detection of marine mammals and Arctic gadids. She has been working in management of BC freshwater invasive fauna since 2023 with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Amalis Riera LinkedIn.

Additional resources:

Read Riera’s original research paper describing the sounds of Arctic cod in captivity

Check out more fish sounds from the University of Rhode Island’s Sound in the Sea project

The production of this podcast is an outreach initiative part of the core NPRB funded research project 2103: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida): seasonality and demography of their sound production

Learn more about John William Last, the producer of the Codcast