diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index b8f28d2..6f7a75c 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -40,12 +40,6 @@ repos:
   - id: black
     language_version: python3
 
-- repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/mirrors-mypy
-  rev: v0.950
-  hooks:
-  - id: mypy
-    exclude: docs/source/conf.py
-    args: [--ignore-missing-imports]
 
 - repo: https://github.com/codespell-project/codespell
   rev: v2.1.0
diff --git a/ctd/read.py b/ctd/read.py
index ac277e4..0315ecb 100644
--- a/ctd/read.py
+++ b/ctd/read.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 from io import StringIO
 from pathlib import Path
 
+import chardet
 import gsw
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
@@ -50,9 +51,7 @@ def _open_compressed(fname):
         cfile = zfile.open(name)
     else:
         raise ValueError(
-            "Unrecognized file extension. Expected .gzip, .bz2, or .zip, got {}".format(
-                extension,
-            ),
+            f"Unrecognized file extension. Expected .gzip, .bz2, or .zip, got {extension}",
         )
     contents = cfile.read()
     cfile.close()
@@ -74,7 +73,8 @@ def _read_file(fname):
             f"Unrecognized file extension. Expected .cnv, .edf, .txt, .ros, or .btl got {extension}",
         )
     # Read as bytes but we need to return strings for the parsers.
-    text = contents.decode(encoding="utf-8", errors="replace")
+    encoding = chardet.detect(contents)["encoding"]
+    text = contents.decode(encoding=encoding, errors="replace")
     return StringIO(text)
 
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index fd7d03f..e722ff8 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+chardet
 gsw>=3.3.0
 matplotlib
 numpy