Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
    What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
    What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
    Audiobook8 hours

    What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins

    Written by Jonathan Balcombe

    Narrated by Graham Winton

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An underwater exploration that overturns myths about fishes and reveals their complex lives, from tool use to social behavior There are more than thirty thousand species of fish--more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined. But for all their breathtaking diversity and beauty, we rarely consider how fish think, feel, and behave. In What a Fish Knows, the ethologist Jonathan Balcombe takes us under the sea and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal what fishes can do, how they do it, and why. Introducing the latest revelations in animal behavior and biology, Balcombe upends our assumptions about fish, exposing them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed creatures but as sentient, aware, social--even Machiavellian. They conduct elaborate courtship rituals and develop lifelong bonds with shoal-mates. They also plan, hunt cooperatively, use tools, punish wrongdoers, curry favor, and deceive one another. Fish possess sophisticated senses that rival our own. The reef-dwelling damselfish identifies its brethren by face patterns visible only in ultraviolet light, and some species communicate among themselves in murky waters using electric signals. Highlighting these breakthrough discoveries and others from his own encounters with fish, Balcombe inspires a more enlightened appraisal of marine life. An illuminating journey into the world of underwater science, What a Fish Knows will forever change your view of our aquatic cousins--your pet goldfish included.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781501930386
    What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
    Author

    Jonathan Balcombe

    Jonathan Balcombe is the director of animal sentience at the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy and the author of Second Nature and Pleasurable Kingdom. A popular commentator, he has appeared on The Diane Rehm Show, the BBC, and the National Geographic Channel, and in several documentaries, and is a contributor of features and opinions to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Nature, and other publications. He lives in Maryland.

    Related to What a Fish Knows

    Related audiobooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Take A Walk On The Wilder Side Of Death With 'Reincarnation Blues'

      Aug 26, 2017

      Michael Poore's new novel is surprisingly goofy for a book about dying. It's the story fishing guide Milo, who's just been eaten by a shark. Oh, and he's in love with Death, who's also named Suzie.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Wild Seas

      Dec 15, 2021

      Wild Seas
      8 min read

    • Article

      Wolf Of The Deep

      May 5, 2022

      Wolf Of The Deep
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dreaming In The Key Of SEA

      Dec 2, 2020

      Dreaming In The Key Of SEA
      18 min read

    • Article

      Rainforest Roosters

      Oct 4, 2022

      Rainforest Roosters
      8 min read

    • Article

      Trout Power

      Jun 20, 2023

      Trout Power
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Eeling

      Dec 26, 2023

      The Art Of Eeling
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Armchair Angler

      Dec 26, 2023

      By Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli Patagonia If you ever wanted an excuse to avoid farmed salmon, drop The New Fish on your table. The award-winning research of Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli that exposed the dangers of salmon farming around the globe has

      2 min read

    • Article

      Adventure On Thin Ice

      Oct 12, 2023

      What do you think of whaling?’ I paused to consider my response as the ageing fisherman chomped down on his cheese sandwich. I had recently begun work as a skipper and expedition manager in northern Norway and was shortly due to sail to the Svalbard

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Redoubtable Bull Shark

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Redoubtable Bull Shark
      15 min read

    • Article

      A Surfcaster’s Lament

      Dec 27, 2022

      A Surfcaster’s Lament
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sealing The Deal

      Aug 2, 2023

      Sealing The Deal
      5 min read

    • Article

      On The Wild Side

      Sep 1, 2023

      On The Wild Side
      2 min read

    • Article

      Is Farmed Salmon Really Salmon?: The staple fish is having an identity crisis.

      Nov 26, 2015

      The fish market has become the site of an ontological crisis. Detailed labels inform us where each fillet is from or how it was caught or whether it was farmed or wild-caught. Although we can now tell the farmed salmon from the wild, the degree of di

      7 min read

    • Article

      Biggie smalls

      Mar 31, 2022

      Biggie smalls
      6 min read

    • Article

      Gentle Giant

      Jul 2, 2020

      Gentle Giant
      6 min read

    • Article

      Allegheny Communion

      Sep 9, 2021

      Allegheny Communion
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sea The Truth

      Jun 21, 2021

      Sea The Truth
      4 min read

    • Article

      Striper Fever

      Nov 15, 2022

      Striper Fever
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for What a Fish Knows

    4/5

    42 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Well written book about fish behavior as well as informed speculation about their inner mental lives. Lightened up with some humor and also warmly told anecdotes about fish-human interactions. First and last chapters are pretty strong attempts to get people to quit killing (and eating) fish but the rest of the book only shows love and sympathy for fish, not calls to action.
    • 3/5
      Full of factoids, logically organized, but the passionate scientists and the scientific process are mostly missing. > Swordfishes can heat up their eyes twenty to thirty degrees Fahrenheit above the water temperature.> The sticklebacks behaved as if they had previewed the study plan. When just one fish was presented with two models, it followed the healthier-looking model to its refuge about 60 percent of the time. Performance steadily improved with group size to over 80 percent in groups of ten sticklebacks. This is an example of consensus decision making.> A subordinate male risks having to fight with a larger male if he is within about 5 percent of the bigger one’s size. A loss could bump him down a few notches in the mating queue. What is a little fish to do? In an admirable show of restraint, male gobies of various species deliberately limit their food intake to retain their place in the queue.> If the breeding female dies, the chief male changes sex to female and the next largest fish in the subordinate group bumps up to chief male. So there is always hope for a suppressed male in a clownfish family. (All of this reveals a slight inaccuracy in the course of events in Finding Nemo. The fact is, upon Nemo’s losing his mother, his dad, Marlin, should have become his new mother.)> sperm drinking certainly works for catfishes, for it is believed to occur in as many as twenty species.> There are a few other all-female species among reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and birds. These species are referred to as parthenogenetic because no sperm is required to fertilize their eggs. But the situation is even more peculiar in Amazon mollies, because they can produce fertile eggs only if they mate with a male Molly of another species. Although the mating act is necessary to trigger pregnancy, it’s a case of “sperm donor lite” for males, whose sperm do not actually fertilize the female’s egg.> Each leap culminates with the two fishes turning upside down and depositing sperm and about a dozen eggs. Talk about good timing! In this manner, several dozen translucent (and well-camouflaged) eggs end up adhering in a cluster on the target leaf. I’ve read that leaps can be four inches high, but watching a film of the behavior indicates that characins can jump much higher. They can also buy more time to deposit their goods by clinging to the leaf for several seconds. The incubation period is very short, which is just as well because Dad must work in overdrive to keep the eggs moist. He does this by firing water onto the egg masses with a skillful tail-flick. It must be an exhausting job, for splashing is performed at one-minute intervals during the two to three days until the eggs hatch and the newborns drop into the water.> Pricklebacks, gunnels, and wolf eels coil their elongate bodies around their egg cluster as the tide recedes, trapping a small pool of water in which the eggs sit. It says something about the virtue of parental dedication that a fish will lie for many hours, exposed to air, to protect his or her future offspring. Further strategies for protecting eggs above the waterline include covering them with seaweed, burying them in the sand, and hiding them among rocks. There must be advantages: higher incubation temperatures, higher oxygen concentrations, and lower predation> Some bettas protect their young in bubble nests, which might be an evolutionary precursor to mouthbrooding. Bubble nests work well in stagnant water where bubble-nesting bettas live. They keep the eggs and developing fry together, safe, moist, and close to the oxygen-rich atmosphere. But in moving water such as a stream, a bubble nest is very difficult to maintain. Parents manipulate eggs with their mouths during the construction of bubble nests, so it is just a short evolutionary hop to holding the eggs in the mouth.
    • 5/5
      What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe and narrated by Graham Winton is a delightful and very informative book on fish. It explains how fish can feel pain, probably pleasure too, can plan, remember, scheme, communicate, and think! They have preferences, can be trained, seem to enjoy certain activities or people over others, and they use tools. I am a vegetarian and I don't eat fish due to this reason but it is nice to hear the science behind it. I learned so much in here too! Wow! How different fish mate, communicate, use tools, and more! In the end, the author discusses the fishing industry today...ugh! I recommend this to anyone and everyone! So heartwarming all the things the little fish can do and no one seems to know about!
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating but broad overview of the current state of the field of the study of fish intelligence. Balcome describes recent experiments into fish tool use, fish social structures, fish's sensory experiences, and fish reproduction. It paints a fascinating picture of fish as complex beings, capable of tool use, planning, pain, emotional expression, compassion, and complex social interactions. Balcombe points out that fish have been evolving for many millennia more than any other invertebrates, and have developed in very complex ways. He convincingly makes the case that these are complex and sentient beings that deserve our respect.
    • 4/5
      It is difficult to look into the eyes of another living creature without wondering what that creature thinks of what he sees in your own eyes. Does that animal wonder what we are and what our intentions might be? Is it perhaps seeing us as an equal that deserves the benefit of the doubt? Or is anything really going on in the brain behind those eyes at all other than the hope that we will provide the animal with something to eat or drink? Humans find it easy to relate to pets, especially dogs and cats, because those animals readily exhibit affection via their actions and variable facial expressions. But other animals, especially those incapable of changing facial expressions, find it more difficult to claim the respect of human beings. And Jonathon Balcombe contends that fish, of all the members of this too easily written off group of static-faced animals, is probably the most underestimated of the lot.Balcombe offers What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins in hope that the book will change the way that we think about the more than thirty thousand species of fish that exist today before it is too late to save many of them from extinction. Balcombe strives to make us see fish as individuals that can think, feel emotions and pain, make choices, enjoy play, hunt in cooperative groups, learn to use tools, and live complicated social lives. The author rightfully believes that the world’s commercial fishing industry is still so unregulated and out of control that it is in the process of relentlessly destroying the very fish species that make it a viable proposition for today’s fishermen. I submit that anyone who reads What a Fish Knows with an open mind will find it difficult, it not impossible, to argue otherwise.Balcombe builds his case by using both the latest scientific breakthrough discoveries and anecdotal evidence from fish owners, recreational and professional divers, and others whose lifework is caring for and studying fish. The book is split into seven sections: “The Misunderstood Fish,” “What a Fish Perceives,” “What a Fish Feels,” “What a Fish Thinks,” “Who a Fish Knows,” “How a Fish Breeds,” and “Fish Out of Water.” For the most part, the content of each section is as clear as the title, but two of the sections demand a bit of an explanation.“The Misunderstood Fish” section focuses on the point that fish are not the “lowly” creatures that most of us believe them to be. As Balcombe puts it:“Lacking detectable facial expressions and appearing mute, fishes are more easily dismissed than our fellow air breathers. Their place in human culture falls almost universally into two entwined contexts: (1) something to be caught, and (2) something to be eaten.” The “Fish Out of Water” section is the one in which the author stresses “it isn’t easy being a fish in an age of humans.” This is where he exposes the commercial fishing practices that do so much collateral damage to the populations of non-targeted fish, practices that see the wasted-by-catch tonnage rivaling the targeted tonnage taken by some commercial shrimpers and fishermen. According to Balcombe, right at one-third “of the world’s fish catch…is not eaten by humans.”Two paragraphs from What a Fish Knows beautifully summarize what Jonathon Balcombe hopes his readers will take away from his book. The first paragraph appears on page 177 in the “Who a Fish Knows” section, and I quote a portion of it below:“The main conclusion we may draw from these aspects of what a fish knows is that fishes are individuals with minds and memories, able to plan, capable of recognizing others, equipped with instincts and able to learn from experience. In some cases, fishes have culture. As we’ve seen, fishes also show virtue through cooperative relationships both within and between species.”The second paragraph I want to quote from appears on page 207 in the “How a Fish Breeds” section of the book:“Fishes are not merely alive – they have lives. They are not just things, but beings. A fish is an individual with a personality and relationships. He or she can plan and learn, perceive and innovate, soothe and scheme, experience moments of pleasure, fear, playfulness, pain, and – I suspect – joy. A fish feels and knows.”Bottom Line: What a Fish Knows is guaranteed to make the reader rethink his relationship with everything from his pet goldfish to the largest whale in the ocean. It is an eye-opener with a message, but it is also an entertaining book about a cousin of ours we all too often take for granted.
    • 4/5
      Just in case you need a reason never to eat fish again (which is kind of on the author's agenda)—a lot of interesting facts about fish consciousness here. In parts it veers over into pop cuteness, in parts it gets dry (sorry, fish), but mostly it's engaging and, often, truly surprising—Ripley's Believe It or Not territory, but wrapped up into a grownup package..