Drum fish are members of the family Sciaenidae, a large group of bony fishes found in oceans and some freshwater systems worldwide, encompassing roughly 70 genera and about 270 species. Their common name comes from the deep, percussive sounds they produce using specialized muscles attached to their swim bladder, a trait that makes them among the noisiest fish in any body of water they inhabit. The family includes well-known species like red drum, black drum, Atlantic croaker, and the freshwater drum, each with distinct feeding habits, habitats, and reputations at the dinner table.
A Huge Family of Noisy Fish
The Sciaenidae are found across tropical and temperate waters on every continent except Antarctica. While plenty of other fish species can produce sounds, sciaenids stand out for the sheer diversity of their sound-production mechanisms, the variety of calls they make, and the structural variation in their hearing organs.1Oxford Academic (Transactions of the American Fisheries Society). Bioacoustics of Fishes of the Family Sciaenidae (Croakers and Drums) The common names given to these fish reflect their acoustic lives: “drums” for the deep thumping sounds, “croakers” for the more grunting calls. Some species go by more colorful names like spot, weakfish, corvina, meagre, and jewfish, depending on the region.
In North America, the species you are most likely to encounter are the red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), the black drum (Pogonias cromis), the Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), and the freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens). The freshwater drum is the only member of the family that lives its entire life in freshwater, inhabiting rivers and lakes from the Great Lakes basin down through the Mississippi River system. The rest are overwhelmingly saltwater or brackish-water species, concentrated along coastlines and estuaries.
How Drum Fish Produce Sound
The “drumming” sound that gives these fish their name is produced by rapid contractions of specialized muscles attached to or near the swim bladder. The swim bladder, a gas-filled sac that most bony fish use for buoyancy control, acts as a resonating chamber. When the sonic muscles vibrate against it, the bladder amplifies those vibrations into audible pulses that travel efficiently through water. The result is a rhythmic thumping or croaking that can sometimes be heard from the surface, and in areas with large spawning aggregations, anglers and boaters often report hearing a chorus of drumming through the hull of a boat.
What makes sciaenids particularly interesting to researchers is how much their sound-production hardware varies from species to species. Some have sonic muscles that attach directly to the swim bladder wall. Others have muscles that connect to nearby bones or tendons, which then transmit vibrations to the bladder indirectly. The shape and size of the swim bladder itself differs across species, which affects the pitch and resonance of the calls produced. This structural diversity means that different drum species produce recognizably different sounds, a fact that biologists have used to monitor populations acoustically without ever needing to see the fish.
What the Drumming Is For
The primary function of sound production in drum fish is reproduction. Males are typically the louder callers, and their drumming intensifies dramatically during the spawning season. In studies of cultured sciaenid species, researchers observed a clear increase in calling activity on nights when spawning occurred, with the sounds becoming longer and containing faster-repeated pulses compared to non-spawning nights.2Aquaculture. Calling activity and calls’ temporal features inform about fish reproductive condition and spawning in three cultured Sciaenidae species The physical changes in the sonic muscles themselves mirror this pattern: during spawning, the muscle fibers widen and the internal cellular structures that allow rapid contraction become more prominent.
Both sexes can produce calls, though their sounds differ. In the Japanese croaker, for instance, females generate calls with more pulses per call, longer overall duration, shorter intervals between pulses, and a lower dominant frequency than males.3Zoological Studies. Sexual Differences in the Spawning Sounds of the Japanese Croaker, Argyrosomus japonicus (Sciaenidae) Calls are heard primarily after dusk, which lines up with the fact that many sciaenid species are nocturnal or crepuscular spawners. The acoustic signaling helps males attract females to spawning sites, helps aggregations form in murky or dark water where visual cues are useless, and may also serve to synchronize the release of eggs and sperm.
Outside of spawning, drum fish also produce sounds during territorial disputes and when startled or disturbed. These “disturbance calls” tend to be shorter and less structured than spawning calls, more like a grunt than a rhythmic drum roll.
Red Drum
Red drum, also called redfish or channel bass, are arguably the most popular game fish in the sciaenid family. They range along the Atlantic coast of the United States from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico, favoring shallow estuaries, grass flats, and oyster bars. Adults can grow quite large, with “bull reds” exceeding 40 pounds, though most of the fish caught recreationally run between five and 15 pounds. The species is easily identified by the distinctive black spot (sometimes more than one) near the base of the tail.
Red drum became a cause célèbre in American fisheries management during the 1980s, when the popularity of Cajun-style blackened redfish, popularized by chef Paul Prudhomme, led to a commercial fishing boom that hammered wild populations. Federal and state regulations followed, restricting commercial harvest and imposing size and bag limits on recreational catches. The species recovered well and remains one of the most widely farmed marine fish in the United States and China.
From a culinary perspective, red drum has a mild, slightly sweet flavor with moderately firm, white flesh. Sensory evaluations comparing pond-raised and wild red drum found that the proximate compositions and sensory characteristics were similar for both.4Journal of Food Science. Comparison of Pond‐Raised and Wild Red Drum (Sciaenopsocellatus) with Respect to Proximate Composition, Fatty Acid Profiles, and Sensory Evaluations This is worth knowing if you encounter farmed redfish at a market: it tastes very much like the wild version. The flesh holds up well to grilling, pan-searing, and blackening, which is why it remains a staple of Gulf Coast cuisine.
How Water Conditions Shape Flavor
One of the more interesting findings about drum fish flavor is that the water the fish grows in can meaningfully affect both its nutritional profile and its taste. Red drum raised in freshwater had roughly double the total fat content of those raised in saltwater, and the fatty acid profiles differed significantly as well, with saltwater fish having a higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids.5Aquaculture Research. Sensory characteristics and nutritional value of red drum Sciaenops ocellatus reared in freshwater and seawater conditions Taste panelists could detect differences in the firmness and color of raw fillets between the two groups, and saltwater-reared fish scored higher in overall acceptability when raw. However, once the fillets were cooked, the flavor differences largely disappeared, and tasters rated the cooked fish similarly regardless of origin.
Research into red drum raised in inland low-salinity saline-alkaline water (a type of water found in some landlocked aquaculture operations) revealed another dimension of this effect. Fish grown in these conditions showed increased crude fat, protein, and ash content in their muscle tissue, along with a notable increase in free amino acids that contribute to umami and sweet tastes, and a decrease in those associated with bitterness.6Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Enhancement of Nutrient Composition and Non-Volatile Flavor Substances in Muscle Tissue of Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) Through Inland Low Salinity Saline-Alkaline Water Culture In practical terms, this means the water chemistry where a drum is raised can nudge its flavor toward the savory end of the spectrum. The mineral composition of aquaculture water is something fish farmers can manipulate, and these findings suggest that flavor optimization is a realistic goal, not just a side effect of geography.
Wild versus cultured red drum also differ in their fatty acid makeup. Wild fish from Texas coastal bays had significantly higher levels of arachidonic acid and related long-chain fatty acids, while cultured fish had significantly higher linoleic acid, a difference that traces directly to diet.7Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. Fatty Acid Profiles in Red Drum Muscle: Comparison between Wild and Cultured Fish These fatty acid differences do not make one version “better” than the other nutritionally in any simple sense, but they reflect the distinct diets of wild fish feeding on crustaceans and small prey versus farmed fish eating formulated pellets.
Black Drum and Their Remarkable Teeth
Black drum are the largest members of the Sciaenidae in the western Atlantic, with fish occasionally topping 90 pounds. They are found from Nova Scotia to Argentina, though they are most common in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southeastern U.S. coast. Unlike red drum, which are primarily predators of shrimp, crabs, and small fish, black drum are specialized crushers. Their diet consists heavily of hard-shelled mollusks: oysters, clams, and mussels.
To support that diet, black drum have evolved molar-like teeth in their pharyngeal jaws (a second set of jaws in the throat) and heavy, rounded crushing teeth in the mouth itself. The bite force of black drum is among the highest measured in living fish. Research on the microstructure of black drum teeth found that their outermost enamel-like layer has remarkably high stiffness and hardness, attributed in part to zinc and fluorine incorporated into the mineral crystals, as well as the alignment of those crystals along the biting direction.8PubMed. Black Drum Fish Teeth: Built for Crushing Mollusk Shells The teeth are also engineered to resist fracture: rather than cracking under the enormous compressive loads of crushing a shell, the outer layer yields locally while a compliant inner layer of dentin absorbs energy. If a tooth does fail, it breaks at a controlled point where the tooth meets the jawbone, which limits damage.
The pharyngeal jaw structure is equally specialized. Micro-CT imaging of black drum pharyngeal jaws shows that the molar-shaped teeth lack true roots and instead sit on a circular bony rim at the tooth base, a design that distributes crushing forces efficiently across the jaw.9Journal of Structural Biology. Unique three-dimensional structure of a fish pharyngeal jaw subjected to unusually high mechanical loads These adaptations together allow a black drum to eat things that would be totally inaccessible to most other fish. For anglers, the practical consequence is that you’ll sometimes pull up a black drum with a mouth full of crushed shell fragments, and their chin barbels (whisker-like sensory organs used to locate prey on the bottom) are a recognizable field mark.
In terms of eating quality, black drum are generally considered good table fare when they are on the smaller side. Fish under about 10 to 15 pounds tend to have firm, mild white flesh that works well fried, baked, or in chowders. Larger specimens are edible but can harbor parasitic worms (spaghetti worms) in the flesh, which are harmless but off-putting, and the texture can become coarser. Most seasoned anglers release the big bulls and keep the smaller “puppy drum” for the kitchen.
Freshwater Drum
The freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) is the family’s odd member, spending its entire life cycle in rivers and lakes. Its range covers a huge swath of North America, from the Hudson Bay drainage through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi basin to Guatemala. It is one of the most widely distributed freshwater fish on the continent, yet it gets relatively little respect from anglers, who often dismiss it as a trash fish or rough fish not worth targeting.
That reputation is partly deserved and partly unfair. Freshwater drum can be good to eat when prepared properly, though the flesh tends to be softer and more prone to a “muddy” or off-taste than its saltwater relatives, especially in warm or stagnant water. Bleeding the fish immediately and keeping it cold helps considerably. The texture firms up when the fillets are scored and fried, and in some regions, particularly parts of the upper Midwest, freshwater drum has a quiet but loyal following among people who grew up eating it.
One ecological role sometimes attributed to freshwater drum is controlling invasive zebra mussels. Because drum have pharyngeal teeth capable of crushing hard prey, the idea that they might help keep zebra mussel populations in check sounds reasonable. However, the evidence for this is thin. A study in Lake Winnipeg found that zebra mussels turned up in only about 11 percent of freshwater drum digestive tracts examined, and over 80 percent of the mussels found were consumed by a single fish.10ScienceDirect (Journal of Great Lakes Research). Limited evidence of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) consumption by freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) in Lake Winnipeg Even though zebra mussels were present at or near all of the sampling sites, the drum were not regularly incorporating them into their diet. So while the capacity to eat mussels exists, the notion that freshwater drum are out there meaningfully controlling an invasive species appears, at least for now, to be wishful thinking.
Otoliths and the Inner Ear
If you’ve ever cleaned a drum and found a pair of smooth, white, stone-like objects in the head, those are otoliths, sometimes called “lucky stones” or “ear bones.” All bony fish have otoliths, but drum fish have unusually large ones relative to their body size, which is one reason anglers have been collecting them for centuries as curiosities and good-luck charms. Otoliths play an important role in the senses of balance and hearing: their mass and shape influence how they move in response to sound waves and changes in body orientation, and that motion is what the fish’s inner ear detects.11PubMed Central. Enigmatic ear stones: what we know about the functional role and evolution of fish otoliths
For drum fish, hearing well is not a luxury. Their reproductive behavior depends on acoustic communication, so the sensitivity and tuning of their hearing matters directly for spawning success. The large otoliths in sciaenids likely contribute to their relatively keen hearing compared to fish families that do not rely on sound. Scientists also use otoliths for aging fish: like tree rings, otoliths deposit annual growth layers that can be counted under a microscope, making them invaluable for fisheries management.
Noise Pollution and Drum Fish Hearing
Because drum fish depend so heavily on sound for reproduction, they are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic noise. Research on Atlantic croaker exposed to repeated boat noise found that the exposure damaged sensory hair cells in the inner ear and decreased hearing sensitivity.12Journal of Experimental Biology. Repeated boat noise exposure damages inner ear sensory hair cells and decreases hearing sensitivity in Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) For a species that relies on vocalization for spawning, hearing damage could hinder spawning events and impair the vestibular function that fish need for normal swimming and orientation. Increased noise also risks masking the spawning calls themselves, making it harder for aggregations to form and for individuals to locate one another. The concern is that in heavily trafficked waterways, chronic noise disturbance could reduce spawning success and, over time, affect population size.
This is not a hypothetical confined to one species. Many commercially and recreationally important sciaenids spawn in estuaries and nearshore waters that also see heavy boat traffic, pile-driving from construction, and noise from dredging operations. The intersection of noisy human activity with acoustically dependent spawning behavior is something fisheries managers are increasingly paying attention to, even if regulatory frameworks to address underwater noise are still rudimentary in most jurisdictions. For anglers, there is a simpler practical takeaway: running your boat engine through a spawning aggregation does more than just spook the fish for a few minutes. It may genuinely disrupt the reproductive event you were hoping to benefit from.
Less Familiar Sciaenids Around the World
North American anglers tend to think of drum fish in terms of redfish, black drum, croaker, and seatrout, but the Sciaenidae are a global family with important species on every warm coastline. The meagre (Argyrosomus regius), found in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, is a large, fast-growing sciaenid that has become a major aquaculture species in Europe, prized for firm flesh and a clean flavor. The corvinas of Latin America (various Cynoscion and Micropogonias species) are staple food fish from Mexico to Argentina. In Asia, the large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) has been farmed intensively in China for decades and is one of the most economically important marine fish in East Asian aquaculture.
What unites all these species, beyond taxonomy, is the acoustic dimension of their lives. Whether you are listening to meagre spawning in a Mediterranean fish farm or Atlantic croaker drumming in the Chesapeake Bay, the underlying biology is recognizably similar: swim bladder, sonic muscles, pulses of sound timed to reproduction. The specific sounds differ enough that trained listeners (or, increasingly, automated recording systems) can identify species by their calls alone, which has opened up passive acoustic monitoring as a tool for tracking spawning activity without disturbing the fish. In some managed fisheries, acoustic surveys are now used alongside traditional net sampling and tagging to estimate population health and spawning timing.
For anyone who fishes for, eats, or simply encounters drum fish, the family’s defining trait is worth appreciating on its own terms. These are fish that have built their entire reproductive strategy around making noise in a medium that carries sound far more efficiently than air. Their teeth, their ears, their muscles, and their behavior all reflect that central fact, and it connects a 90-pound black drum crushing oysters on a Texas jetty to a two-inch juvenile croaker pulsing its tiny swim bladder in a Carolina salt marsh.