Crackling or popping noise heard inside the hull; beneath the surface

Thanks for posting this question Judy. It sounds exactly like a bowl of rice crispies after pouring milk! I still think it's shrimp. Or krill.

Respectfully,

Your Cohort.

I've heard this noise while up in St Augustine, I couldn't figure it out at first. Only after my AC stopped working did I realize that the sound was coming from the zebra mussels that were rapidly infesting my raw water system.

You hear it mostly on steel vessels. I believe it's air molecules that are in the water and as the current forces the water over the bottom, they leech off onto the bottom of the hull.......and make that noise.

Although I haven't experienced it on the West Coast, I have read about boaters hearing snapping shrimp from inside their boat with it driving them crazy trying to locate the source.

The sound can be heard here:
Snapping shrimp audio

Their habitat extends up most of the East Coast:
Snapping shrimp habitat

Heard it all the time out West (SoCal) in our fiberglass boats. Can't tell you how many times the dockside 'experts" (albeit with a few beers under their belts) claimed it was the fiberglass hulls falling apart

It is amazing how loud it can actually get, especially with some berths low on the waterline and right up against the hull..........

I hade the same thing in the Med, at Golfe Juan in the Moonen 85 (steel hull). They said it was fish eating on the hull, but I never really found out what it was. Just happy it wasn´t the boat cracking up...

Did you forget the smiley?

Marmot, are you shrimping out of the debate?

It wouldn't krill you to comment. Show a bit of mussel.

Fish Humor! Very punny...

But true. It's just little critters having a go at the antifouling.

Ha! Good one fish.

Let me tell you about the barnacles that seem to make a lot of no good noise...

barnacles - YouTube

Don't hate!

Mate,

If you had woken up face down on as many pontoons at sunrise as I had, you would know the sound.

That bit when the sun comes up and you have a deep desire for a really cold soda, that's when you hear the none-stop noise of the little beggers.

Next time you go down to the boat, put your ear down on the wooden part of the planking; its a whole new world.

Judy, I hope this answers your question.

Hate is a strong word. I try not to use it.

I hate barnacles.

Hi,

I would go for things growing on the hull as I have heard it in places where the only shrimps within thousands of miles come frozen in a 5lb box

Believe it Oar knot...

I heard it too, perched as I was on a haddock under a mackerel sky, waiting for a grouper guys to come in, trying to tuna guitar.
Oh Fish, here's that six squid I owe you...

Now I can say, I'm a prawn again Crispin, I have seen Cod.

Maybe they are Terredo worms. The ones that eat the pilings, maybe they're trying to get into the bottom paint......I only hear it in certain area's, usually not in true salt like at Marina's in the Bahamas.