Residents of a Florida city seek help identifying the mysterious sound keeping them awake

Stephanie Kaltenbaugh got into her pickup truck this month and started driving Tampa, Florida She was determined to find the source of the recurring drumming noise that sometimes caused her house to shake. First he went to Stovall House, a nearby social club, to see if the music was the cause, but the annoying sound was coming from the opposite direction. So he drove south until Nearby air base He turned off the car to see if he heard anything. But the sound was coming from the direction he was just driving.

after Driving in circles for an hourKaltenpaw surrendered. She and her neighbors wondered where the mysterious sound was coming from. But after enduring frequent noise for several years, some neighbors… They are taking steps to identify the source.

Resident Sarah Healey recently contacted a marine scientist, who agreed to help if Healey and her neighbors raised money to buy speakers that can record sound in Tampa Bay, where many residents believe the sound comes from.

Created by Healy A GoFundMe, which has raised more than $2,300 in just over a week, most of it from neighbors who can't stand the noise either. After Healy raised $2,500, it was done Scientist James Locascio You plan to put the microphones underwater Determine once and for all the origin of the sound. “It seems a bit silly to pursue this matter so aggressively.”Healy (45 years old) said. Washington Post. “But on the other hand, it's something that's important to the community.”

Locascio, fisheries program manager at Mote Aquarium and Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, has a good idea where the noise is coming from, and it's not what most people expect. According to Locascio, the black croaker, which typically lives on the Atlantic coast, makes a sound similar to a megaphone bass when it mates. It ensures that the fish flexes its muscles in front of the swim bladder to produce drum sounds at low frequencies.

Although underwater sounds rarely travel into the air because of their different densities, Locascio said black drum sounds travel through the ground and tunnels, and sometimes reach people's homes.

It could be a population Black whiny It has increased Tampa Bay In recent years, it has caused noise disturbances, Locascio said. Fellow fish in Winter nights. “This is a rare phenomenon”, it states. “All these people are amazed because he's not well known.”

Abby Reynolds, who lives about a mile from the bay in South Tampa, said she started hearing noises at night in 2021, after she and her family moved to a new home. The hype intensified the following year, he said. Reynolds, a real estate agent, said she felt her pillow shaking some nights and started using earplugs. Their son, who was 4 years old at the time, woke up frightened and went to bed with his parents when he heard the noise.

Reynolds said he walked around his neighborhood some nights with a flashlight looking for the source of the noise. But he always came home without an answer. Even the Tampa Police Department received noise complaints in December 2022, but was unable to identify the source, according to what the British newspaper “Daily Mail” reported. Fox 13.

Kaltenbaugh, 39, who lives a block and a half from the Bay, said the noise also intensified at his home in the fall of 2022. “You're really spending all this time questioning your sanity,” said Kaltenbaugh, who runs a pet-sitting business. .

Although the noise was rare for most of last year, it has resurfaced this winter. On January 13, neighbors heard it again. Hailey, who lives about a mile from the bay, was heading to her bed when she felt the shaking. Healey, who has lived in Tampa since 2010, remembers thinking, “Oh my God. Is this what I think it is?”

Last year, Hailey heard from others Tampa residents About the noise, but she had never experienced it herself before. Fearing that she was imagining it, she was relieved when her husband told her that he too had felt a tremor.

On January 14, while neighbors were arguing over noise in a group of Facebook From the neighbourhood, Healy said he read comments from people who were 32 kilometers away From Port Tampa Bay. While researching noise, Healy saw articles about Locascio using recording devices to investigate similar sounds in the mid-2000s in Cape Coral And Fat tip, Florida. Locascio discovered that both cities were facing black drum.

Healy emailed Locascio, who hoped to put his research into practice. A few days later, Healey created a GoFundMe, which he titled “All About Bass.” Once he raises $2,500, Locascio plans to install two or three underwater microphones and record the sounds. To avoid city permits, Healey said some people who live in the bay have agreed to place microphones on their private property. Locasio said he can get as close to the black drum as possible by boat.

Some residents don't believe Locascio's theory that the black drum makes the sounds. Kaltenbaugh says he usually hears the noise on weekend nights, so he thinks it's coming from a party boat. Reynolds believes the noise could come from many places, but his best guess is that the sounds are caused by construction.

Healy plans to continue raising money so Locascio can investigate other possible sources of noise (discos, boat parties, plays, concerts) and can survey residents and analyze the data. Some residents want an answer so they can stop wondering. Others want to find a solution to put an end to the noise, but if the culprit is fish, they will have to wait until the mating season is over. “This is nature,” Healy says. “There is nothing to do.”

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