{"id":8685,"date":"2020-02-01T10:17:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T18:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=8685"},"modified":"2020-02-01T10:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T18:17:57","slug":"2019-07-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2019-07-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 \u2013 6 Midshipman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8725\" src=\"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"983\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1.jpg 983w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1-768x675.jpg 768w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2019-6-Plainfin-Midshipman-1-560x492.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Please allow me to introduce to you, a little fish that lights up and sings! I first heard the singing midshipman while anchored in Glorietta Bay, San Diego &#8211; right off the 18<sup>th<\/sup> tee. Each night we\u2019d heard a droning hum that went on for hours. It wasn\u2019t a <em>hummmm<\/em>, but more a <em>popm, popm, popm <\/em>and we had no idea what it was. Then, years later, I was reading about fish and bioluminescence \u2013 not the microscopic stuff that lights up our waters in summer, but bigger creatures that light up to attract a mate. The two experiences suddenly came together into one critter, the plainfin midshipman, named for the luminescent \u2018uniform buttons\u2019 on its skin. About hand-sized, the southern species of fish \u2018light up\u2019 during courtship because they eat a crustaceon that has the light-up chemical, but Salish Sea midshipman don\u2019t eat that, so they\u2019re perpetually in the dark.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Both male and female midshipman sing their songs during courtship or while fighting, but the male\u2019s courtship call is more a prolonged hum. Sometimes it can go on for over an hour without a break. This is produced using muscles in its modified swim bladder. Fish have internal ears but they don\u2019t exactly \u2018hear\u2019 sounds like we do. Instead, they pick up vibrations coming through the water \u2013 which is what these midshipman are doing to find each other. When a male makes its song that\u2019s somewhat like a radio with a short in it, females move towards him, and during mating season in summer, hormones increase the females \u2018hearing\u2019 so that she can better sense the male\u2019s calls. Next time you\u2019re in a quiet anchorage, put an empty glass to the hull or cabin bulkhead and have a long listen. Hear the midshipman\u2019s siren calling for his true love?<\/p>\n<p>Larry Eifert paints and writes about the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n<p>***previous*** &#8212; ***next***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please allow me to introduce to you, a little fish that lights up and sings! I first heard the singing midshipman while anchored in Glorietta Bay, San Diego &#8211; right off the 18th tee. Each night we\u2019d heard a droning hum that went on for hours. It wasn\u2019t a hummmm, but more a popm, popm, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2019-07-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2019 \u2013 6 Midshipman<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8725,"parent":6453,"menu_order":35,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8685","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8726,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8685\/revisions\/8726"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}