<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/gettyimages-53443069_1.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/gettyimages-53443069_1.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/gettyimages-53443069_1.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A new study has found the answer to a mysterious buzzing sound that has baffled scientists for years. ( TARIK TINAZAY/AFP/Getty Images) ( TARIK TINAZAY/AFP/Getty Images)

A team of marine researchers have traced a vexing humming sound in the ocean to what they believe to be deep-water animal migration.

Simone Baumann-Pickering, an assistant research biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, announced her team's discovery at this week's Ocean Sciences Meeting in New Orleans.

Scientists have long been puzzled by the mysterious buzz, detected in the mesopelagic zone. Through the use of acoustic instruments, the deep sea researchers were able to meticulously analyze the low-frequency sounds and determine the most likely suspects were massive schools of fish and other deep-sea dwellers darting through the depths of the ocean.

"We’ve been speculating about the source for these sounds for a few years now and had always hypothesized that the origin is from midwater animals," Baumann-Pickering told weather.com in an email. "The most likely candidates within that community were fish as many fish species are known to produce sound."

The findings thrilled oceanographic scientists at the conference who observed the research could help them better understand the mysterious routines of many sea critters that remain elusive.

"I think this is some of the most fascinating research to come along in some time," David Gallo, an oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told weather.com. "It’s a part of the world we know little about."

Rob Williams, a marine researcher for the Oceans Initiative, said the research would be important for comprehending how animals underwater communicate and travel.

"The finding 'rings true' because sound is the primary way that many marine organisms probe their deep, dark environment," Williams said. "I think of Dr. Baumann-Pickering’s results as reporting a marine counterpart to the dawn chorus of songbirds we enjoy on land, or the songs of cicadas during hot summer days."

Williams said he shared many of Baumann-Pickering's lingering questions over the interpretation of the sounds.

"What do these sounds mean?" he inquired. "What purpose do they serve? Are they mating calls? Are they sharing information about the discovery of a big, important prey patch, in hopes that someone else will reciprocate and signal back when they find prey patches in future?"

(MORE: Sound Check: Marine Mammals and the Noises We Make Below the Surface )

Although he hoped further research would answer many of these uncertainties, he believed the findings gave conservationists one more reason to be concerned with "rising levels of human-generated ocean noise from shipping, seismic surveys, pile driving and sonar."

"Much of our work on ocean noise to date has focused on disturbance of individual whales," Williams said. "We are now starting to recognize chronic ocean noise as a ubiquitous habitat-level stressor. If human-generated noise is masking this hum or buzz, we may be tipping the balance between predator and prey, and changing the way that ecosystems function. This signal that Dr. Baumann-Pickering describes happens to fall in the frequency band dominated by noise from distant ships and seismic surveys. As noise levels in the ocean continue to grow, it will be important to describe the function of this signal, and in parallel, understand how human-generated noise may be masking it."

Many of the scientists at the meeting were eager to continue to delve deeper in searching for deciphering what the fish were doing, believing further study would help fill in the perplexing gaps of deepwater biology.

"(The) scientists have come up with a solid set of explanations, but the phenomena remains somewhat mysterious," Robert Carney, professor of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University, told weather.com in an email. "How much is really known? Here we run into a murky area. The Navy listens to the ocean a lot and has been doing so for a long time. It's possible that more is known than is acknowledged."

Listen to the sound below:

MORE AT WEATHER.COM: Deep Sea Monsters