Fish Talking Views
Common to mainland America, the midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) has golden spots on each side like the brass burrons on a midshipman's coat. Familiar along the Pacific coast, the luminescent midshipman is also called the talking fish, the grunter, the grunt and the 'singing fish. The sound it makes when disturbed - made by vibrating the air bladder - is actually similar to the croak of a tree frog. Other talking fish include the triggerfish, which is called Humuhumunkunukn-a-puaa, fish that grunts like a pig, by Hawaiians, and the male codfish, which grunts, both to defend its spawning area and to urge females to lay eggs. A Gulf of Mexico toadfish species has an air bladder that actually produces a powerful hooting sound . . . resembling a boat whistle, according to one.
But Lopez holds it all together, and expertly so, by making the pregnant Emma a sympathetic center for our attention. In this pivotal role, Kortney Adams projects both warmth and intelligence, making Emma quite believably a passionate artist, a loving wife and expectant mother, an intellectual seeker . . . and a woman who just happens to dream about extinct talking fish. Her complex, changing, and utterly believable relationship with her husband (the lively Tom Oh’Keefe, who also handles Malthus and the fossil hunter, among others) adds yet another layer to the story.
Fish Talking Images
