Pop rocks sound coming from bilge

[Don C L]

Ordinarily I'd definitely say shrimp too, but didn't you hear these noises before this sailing trip? Did you see anything bubbling in the bilge? Once the bilge was emptied did the noises stop?

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Ordinarily I'd definitely say shrimp too, but didn't you hear these noises before this sailing trip? Did you see anything bubbling in the bilge? Once the bilge was emptied did the noises stop?

I wouldn't expect the sound to stop when you empty the bilge because it was most likely coming from outside the hull the whole time. It's a hard sound to localize and I've noticed that it can often be heard in one hull of my catamaran and not the other so it's no even uniform in a 19' distance and can move around frequently.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Dave Isom

I’m in the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, Australia in a steel boat and we’ve got them here. I like the idea that it’s “Polyestermites” ha! Sounds like the marine equivalent of
“Drop Bears” we ‘have’ in Aus ! ��

Ah "drop bears" like the Wolf Iguana? Normally Iguana are vegetarians, but every few years or so one arrises that has a taste for flesh. The are black, and 10 times the size of a normal Iguana (or more).

Sometimes, in the dark of night, on some tropical island, you can hear them rustling the undergrowth.

Occasionally one gets the taste for human flesh.....

[Tortuga's Lie]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

Ah "drop bears" like the Wolf Iguana? Normally Iguana are vegetarians, but every few years or so one arrises that has a taste for flesh. The are black, and 10 times the size of a normal Iguana (or more).

Sometimes, in the dark of night, on some tropical island, you can hear them rustling the undergrowth.

Occasionally one gets the taste for human flesh.....

Sounds like a croc!

[KP44]

Croakers. Or shrimp. Croakers are fish that make such noises.

[Oeanda]

Attack of the popping shrimp.
I skimmed this thread at one point and somehow it must’ve gotten lodged in my subconscious. Last night in the wee hours this crazy crackling poprocks sound started coming through the hull and I realized ‘holy crap this is what that guy was talking about!’ It went on and on. Then I woke up...

[tamicatana]

Crackling are alpheid shrimp:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae

But as was mentioned, the sea is noisy. This website has some examples:
https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/

Toadfish sing for love:

[dblk65]

Ha...what a wonderful memory this drums up...of me losing sleep and frantically searching for some electrical short or whatnot that was expected to immediately destroy all my underwater fittings...

But merely the unrecognizable sound of life itself...heard for the first time free the distractions of modern existence...

How I miss it...

[marke14]

I haven’t posted here in years - I’m a day sailor after all - but I had to log in for this thread.

Not long after we bought our boat, I heard these same sounds while below decks at the slip.. I had just been reading and discussing about how some exotic racing yacht had lost its canting keel somewhere. I remember asking my liveaboard neighbor whether he heard such sounds from his boat, and asked him what was the likelihood that the sound signified my keel falling off. He confirmed, no it’s just crustaceans. ��

I’ve heard the same sound while snorkeling near reefs too.

[Sun and Moon]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

One of the mysteries of temperate seas, I think it's pistol shrimp but a friend insists it's polyestermites, a species of termite adapted to eating fiberglass boats.
https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/20...pistol-shrimp/

If you got your boat vaccinated and put a mask on it, it wouldn't be spreading those polyestermites around to all the rest of our boats. So selfish!

[GoneIsland]

Here on lake Ponchatrain those popping noises are from the mullet fish eating the growth off the bottom. Drove me nuts until I found out what the cause was!
John
Boating Made Easy