Noisy fish sex keeping Florida residents up all night: scientist

It’s the Call of the Wild…thing.

Unnerved Tampa Bay, Florida, residents are scrambling to explain mysterious rolling bass tones that vibrate their walls at night and rob their kids of sleep.

Frantic theories have run the gamut — from secret overnight operations at a nearby military base to a code violating nightclub or even incoming alien squadrons.

But a scientist from the region believes he knows the source of the confounding racket — frisky fish.

This week, James Locascio of the Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota installed marine microphones in the area to confirm his theory — that the din stems from mating noises emitted by the aptly named black drum fish.

Locascio is near certain that the recent phenomenon is an echo of conclusive research he conducted nearly two decades ago in Cape Coral.

Flummoxed Floridians in the area complained of incessant bass noises disrupting their evenings.

Locascio caught wind of the situation while completing his collegiate coursework and conducted experiments proving that the tones came from mass black drum mating events in local waters.

“A retired science teacher let me use her back porch for three months,” he told The Post. “It was very productive for my research. I called her this week and we talked for the first time in 18 years. I told her I was doing the same thing again.”

Locascio said the noises emitted by the black drum during their winter mating season can hit up to 165 water decibels. When produced en masse, the sounds are conducted through the ground and become audible on land.

The scientist sprung into action again this month after hearing similar tales of bewilderment in Tampa.

One couple, he said, struggled for weeks to come to terms with the peculiar rumbling tones.

Desperate for answers, they would stand underneath nearby streetlights and strain their ears, convinced that they were responsible.

Other locals would curse imagined carfuls of inconsiderate teens testing their subwoofers.

“It becomes like an urban mystery,” Locascio said. “You get a lot of different theories. People just want to know what it is. It’s that element of the unknown. And when you have social media you really start to hear different ideas.”

Some initially scoffed at the drum fish theory, unable to fathom that amorous amphibians are responsible for the vaguely-hip hop beats reverberating into their bedrooms.

But Locascio said they eventually come around after hearing his explanation.

“The vibrations continue to become more and more disruptive, so now is the time to act!” reads a GoFundMe campaign from Tampa resident Sara Healy which at has raised $2,620 to fund Locascio’s testing.

It reads: “Can you help us solve this mystery and put our community’s mind at ease?”

Locascio told the Post collecting data could be a challenge in the large body of water, but that he hopes he’ll soon be able to show residents his theory holds water.