Salt Water Crackling Noise?

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Roy M

The first night after I launched my boat, I heard it. Due to the extreme state of sleep deprivation and total exhaustion, I was sure that the boat was breaking up. The next morning, my fellow boatbuilders had a good laugh, then shared the reason with me. It, too, was in Marina Del Rey, in 1978. Boat is still floating, joyfully. Cleaner shrimp, spotfin croakers, and other critters make for great entertainment. Then, there's the occasional bouncing off the hull by a sea lion chasing a fish, now THAT'S a surprising sound in the dead of night. Really gets your attention.

I spent the first night on my boat in long beach, heard nothing. Had a totally crappy day getting to Marina Del Rey, got towed in after midnight.

then the cracking started, so I was getting a little freaked out and then just as I was dozing off I thought I was going crazy smelling smoke. a 120 wire behind the panel actually started arcing andmelting.

SO after I dealt with that, I'd been up like 20 hours and I'm totally freaked out. I unplugged the boat completely and ran an extension cord to the dock to run a small heater because it was unusually cold, I think it was like 15-20 degrees out.

After tearing apart the boat, I went online a bit with my iphone and Everybody said shrimp online so eventually I started to relax a bit and finally dozed off.

Next day I wake up all refreshed about noon-ish and happy to be in my new slip with new boat. Go topside and there's a melty black charcoal spot where the dock box used to be, WTF?

So I ask neighbor if they knew what that was all about? And he was "Oh my god!!! Where you on the boat? The Dock box was completely engulfed and we emptied two extinguishers on it before the fire department came and were able to finally put it out! We pounded on your hull and shouted, we thought maybe you were electrocuted on the boat!?

Best sleep I think I ever had, I am usually a very light sleeper in fact... but yeah, it's just shrimp

[neptunesjester]

Living on an aluminum vessel, I actually get concerned when I don't hear those sounds. Makes me worried about electrolisis running off the natives.

[jongleur]

Just wait until you get a sea bass that likes to smack your hull with its tail at night to coax little creatures out of your thru hulls.

[Cotemar]

+3 on Shrimp

[harmonysimone]

Just discovered this myself! The noise started in Marina del Rey. It drove me absolutely crazy for a week. I thought that something was surely gnawing away at our boat. I found several blogs that say the creature responsible for the sound is the Pistol Shrimp. There's a neat video online that shows it in action (sorry if someone already posted this):

Pistol Shrimp sonic weapon - Weird Nature - BBC wildlife - YouTube

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