Plainfin Midshipman Ready for Their Closeup
Singing Illuminated Fish Spawn Movie Role
The Plainfin Midshipman are an oddly named fish with strange behavior patterns. Plainfin Midshipman, sometimes called Toad Fish or Grunt Fish, are distinguished by photophores, light-emitting organs used to attract prey. These photophores look like buttons on a naval officer’s uniform, hence the name midshipman. In winter, midshipman inhabit deep water (400 feet). In early spring they begin a migration to shallower waters along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico.
One of their favorite migration spots is along the shores of Dabob Bay on the Olympic Peninsula, where we live. They burrow into the sandy shores, build nests, and emit a loud hum that resembles monks chanting. That sound is meant to attract females for spawning. The midshipmen also attract bald eagles that line our shores from April through June. The fish nest in shallow waters and in low tides and are easy pickings for eagles.
Two years ago, the Plainfin Midshipman attracted a film crew from Canada. They filmed on our beach for eighteen days. The crew estimated more than threee thousand midshipmen nestled under the rocks on our expanse of beach. The collective hum can be loud enough to drown out human speech. Despite years of studying what he calls the “charismatic” Plainfin midshipman, the subject of his Ph.D., Aneesh Bose says no one knows where the fish come from or where they go after spawning. “It’s a mystery,” he says.
Dr. Bose is conducting research in Sweden and Africa and flew over to advise the crew. The film crew included field director Louisa Gilbert, camera operators and divers Tavish Campbell and Dierdre Leowinata, sound recordist Michael Kennedy, and then intern and assistant Cortney Gilbert. Filmmakers Dugald Maudsley of Infieldfly Productions and Monika Delmos, and Production Manager Dianne Marcotte oversaw the project from Toronto.
A smaller crew came back in 2023 for another ten days of filming. All this, we’re told, will amount to maybe five minutes of screen time in a three-part series titled “Secret World of Sound” with David Attenborough. Episode 1 will have its Canadian premiere on The Nature of Things, February 15. Then it will air on Sky TV in the UK on February 28. It’s coming to Netflix at some point. We’ll let you know.
Here’s the trailer for the show. The Plainfin Midshipman flashes by in a couple of seconds. It’s amazing what goes into filming these nature documentaries. From the promo: “…how a strange fish baffled local residents with its eerie hum ….”
The Crew
We were privileged to provide access to a group of sweet, charismatic, and brilliant people who devote their lives to illuminating natural mysteries through film and storytelling for this project and others. They are our heroes.
Aneesh Bose, Ph.D., is one of the world’s foremost experts on midshipmen. See his brief video on Plainfin midshipman, parts shot in Dabob Bay, and some of his other projects at aneeshbose.com
Tavish Campbell. See amazing footage, articles, and images at tavishcampbell.ca
Deirdre Leowinata. See Deidre’s website featuring her incredible “core values” at dleowinata.com, and her post-shoot reflections (2017) and first Geoduck burger: pacificwild.org/post-shoot-reflections/
A trailer for another current film for which Tavish and Deirdre were team members: https://www.keepersofthelandfilm.com/
Louisa Gilbert, wildbusfilms.com See more about Louisa’s journey at mountainculturegroup.com/wild-bus-films-cool-school-bus/
