did this for my biology class

1. The effects of low and high
frequencies on a fishes lateral line
By : Zac Shely
A period
Mr. Pledger
12/06/11

2. introduction
• There are many ways to paralyze fish.
Vibrations, curtain herbs, chemicals, and
frequencies. For a fish to be paralyzed
by frequencies, they either need to be
very low, or very high. Frequencies are
used for
everything, sonar, satellites, radio, warf
are, and many other things. But not a
lot of people have tested the effect of
frequencies on fish or other organisms.

3. Question?
• How high or how low does a
frequency have to be for it to
paralyze a common
goldfish, And which frequency
causes the fish to be
paralyzed for the longest
amount of time.

4. Research
• A fishes lateral line, is a sensory organ that allows
the fish to sense pressure change, movement from
other fish and organisms, and vibrations in their
surroundings. (http://www.laterallineco.com/fish_lateral_line.html
Brandon & Spencer White Founders, Lateral Line, Inc. year 2008)
• All fish have a lateral line, but depending on the
fish, it can be used for different things such
as, schooling, avoiding predators, preying on their
food, or locating and attracting a mate.
(http://www.laterallineco.com/fish_lateral_line.html Brandon & Spencer
White Founders, Lateral Line, Inc. year 2008)
• Also, fish can hear these frequencies in the water
because it changes the pressure and they can sense
this using their lateral line.

5. Research cont..
• Some whales and dolphins have a unique
ability which allows them to use a burst of
sound that paralyzes fish so they can catch
them easier. (Lamb, W. Kaye. "Canada." The Canadian
Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2007. 1 Sep
2007. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm
=Copyright&Params=A1)
• Scientist have been able to recreate this burst
of sound and paralyze fish, but different
levels of frequencies effect how long the fish
is paralyzed for.
• These frequencies range up to 200KHz

6. hypothesis
• If I use different types of
frequencies, consisting of low and
high frequencies, on 3 different
sized fish (small, medium, and large)
and I keep the type of the fish and
all other factors the same, how long
will the fish be paralyzed?

7. Experiment
• For this, I started off with three fish. A small (1
inch) a medium (1.5inch) and a large (2inch)
fish, I kept them in a large 1½ foot glass vase.
Using waterproof headphones I subjected the
fish to hertz and kilohertz, ranging from 10hz-
22kilohertz. For every 1000hz, there is
1khz, so 22khz is 22,000hz. When the fish
became paralyzed, I immediately turned off
the frequencies and waited to see how long
the fish were paralyzed for.

8. Experiment cont…
• So over the next few hours I recorded all of
the data and found that, The average amount
of time the fish were paralyzed for while
using hertz was 27 seconds. While the
average for while using kilohertz was 25
seconds. These were at the highest and the
lowest frequencies. I then put this data into
two charts.

9. Hertz and kilohertz
• 1000hertz = 1kilohertz
• 10hz
• 100hz
• 200hz
• 1khz
• 10 kHz
• 16 kHz
• 22 kHz

10. hertz

11. kilohertz

12. conclusion
• During my tests, I though that the fish would be
paralyzed steadily with every type of frequency, but a
little bit more with the extremely low and extremely
high points; But, they were only paralyzed with the
extremely low and extremely high frequencies, and
the ones in the middle they weren't even effected by.
This makes me wonder, if they can even sense the mid
frequencies. Also, like I though, the larger fish was less
effected by the frequency compared to the medium
and smaller fish, this shows that the bigger the
fish, the more of an immunity it has to the
frequency, or maybe the smaller fishes lateral line
isn't as developed as the larger fishes is.

13. Share results
• To share my results, I posted my power point
on “slide share.” (http://www.slideshare.net)
A website where your able to upload any
power point for anyone to look at, and
hopefully other people will watch and learn
from my power point, and maybe expand on it
and learn even more.