Sorry, that song got stuck in my head when I thought the word "water". Yeah, I'm scatterbrained.

Anyway here's my question: the other day I was watching a Bass fishing show (Outdoors with Hank Parker I believe) and he was doing a Q/A segment where someone wrote in and asked if it's true you should not talk when you are fishing because sound travels so well under water and you'll spook the fish.

While I don't distrust his answer (which was, "no you won't spook the fish by talking") I was curious to his explination. It went something like "No, 99.9% of all sound-energy is relected off the waters surface". The way he said "sound energy" instead of the more conventional "sound waves" seemed odd to me, altho I suppose either works. Anytime I hear "99.9%" it tells me somoeone's probably making up that statistic. Was wondering, how much sound is reflected by water's surface? doesn't it depend on the pitch/frequency? I'm fairly certain that as a kid, when you'd dive to the bottom of a pool and stay under you could hear the distorted murmings of the crowd above. just kinda curious... i figured it had more to do with the fish grow accustomed to the muffled sound of voices on public lakes.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Well, I'll take a bath instead of a shower next time, submerge my
head, and find out how well I can hear sounds from elsewhere
(not transmitted through the plumbing, the tub, or the floor).

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

As you mentioned, i believe a great deal of sound from elswhere in the house will be transmitted through the plumbing and the sides of the tub. I dont think that would be an effective method of experimenting.

But you could always try to find out urself by simply going underwater next time ur fishing and getting ur mate to try to shout at you. In my experience you can hear jack all from the surface when you're underwater.

Sound reflects quite efficiently from surfaces that show a big change in density, like air/water. I suspect there may also be better reflection when the sound is travelling obliquely (as it would be for voices on the bank of a lake or river).
Can't put a figure on it, but it seems plausible that little sound would get into the water.

Grant Hutchison

I sure could hear the voice of the woman who lived in the apartment
above me for two months this summer. She talked more voluminously
than anyone else I've ever heard. If she and her partner were both
home (which was almost as much as I was, which was almost always),
she was talking. If she was talking, she was talking loudly. Even
when the windows were closed, I could often tell what she was saying
because her voice came through the carpet/floor/ceiling. She really
liked adverbs. Especially the word "never". "I would never use
alcohol and drugs at the same time, like my brother."

I never met the couple. The caretaker told me they were only going
to be here for a short time, so I wasn't too distressed. I told him not
to say anything to them since I could tell it wouldn't do any good.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Any vibration of the hull of the boat/ship, while in contact with the water, in the audio frequency range and lower will be transmitted for long distances.

Turns out on this occasion, he probably wasn't. The correct figure seems to be 99.89% for incidence at a right angle, if this detailed derivation is correct.Still, human hearing is logarithmic, so although that 99.89% reflection seems impressive, it doesn't suffice to render normal conversation (50-60dB) inaudible: a 30dB fall simply takes it down to the level of a whisper.
So it depends a bit on the hearing threshold of a fish, and the ambient noise level underwater: I might be happier to talk while I was fishing a rocky river than a still lake.

Grant Hutchison

... and will, likewise, be ignored by the fish!

When we were growing up, our father was a big proponent of "you'll spook the fish". Now that we've grown older (while doing our best not to grow up) my brother and I have decided that, at least on easily accessable public waters, the fish don't care!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Maybe this is giving fish too much credit (but then look at all the stuff people buy to catch them), but maybe the "spook the fish" idea comes from the thought that to a fish, any unfamiliar sound should be feared. If I'm alone in my house and it makes a loud noise that I'm familiar with, I don't care. When I hear something that may or may not footsteps outside the door at 3 AM, it's different.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

Perhaps the fish don't care, but telling someone not to talk because "it'll spook the fish" is a good way to get them to shut up. Part of the joy of fishing is enjoying the peace and quiet.

Well, from what I know about fish, they sense pressure changes along thier lateral lines, and these are very sensative. Of course an animal that lives underwater developed a different system for "hearing" than we air-breathers...altho i think to some extent they also have "ears". I'm sure a quick google search could answer that. But anyway, if 99.89% of sound is reflected, then I guess his explination was right I think the whole "you'll spook the fish" thing was more so father didn't have to spend the day answering inane questions from his kids

__________________

I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."