Scientists 'Train' Fish To Catch Themselves

Fish will one day be able to catch themselves if an experiment by US scientists proves successful.

Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by using a sound broadcast to attract them into a net.

Here fishy, fishy: American scientists are using sound to influence the behaviour of fish

They hope to release fish into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, before enticing them into an underwater cage to be harvested when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.

If successful, the system could be used to bolster depleted fish stocks and reduce the costs of fish farming, scientists said.

"It sounds crazy, but it's real," said Simon Miner, a research assistant at MBL.

Mr Miner said the first step in the project was to establish whether fish could be trained.

advertisement Fish, including black sea bass, stout and bottom-dwelling fish, were kept in a circular tank and fed in an enclosed feeding area within the tank.

Scientists would sound a tone before they dropped food into the feeding area, which the fish could enter through a small opening.

The tone was played for 20 second, three times a day, for about two weeks. The result, according to Mr Miner, was "remote-control fish".

"You hit that button and they go into that area and they wait patiently," he said.

Mr Miner is now trying to determine how the fish remember to associate the sound with food.

He said the fish were fed outside the feeding zone for a few days, and then the tone was reinstated to see if they would return to the feeding area.

Some fish forgot after five days, while others remembered for as long as 10, Mr Miner said.

In May, scientists will expand the experiment by bringing about 5,000 black sea bass to a feeding station called an AquaDome in Buzzards Bay, 45 miles south-east of Boston.

The fish will be fed in a dome after a sound broadcast and, when sufficiently "trained", will eventually be freed.

"The commercial side is going to be sceptical," said Randy MacMillan, the president of the National Aquaculture Association in America.

An agent for the Department of Natural Resources decides to drive down to a popular fishing spot and check the fishing licenses of the fishermen there.

While he is going about his duty, he spots a man loading a big cooler into the back of his truck.

“Excuse me sir” the DNR officer says to the man, “Mind if I check your catch.”

“I didn’t catch anything” the man replies.

“Mind if I look in your cooler then” the officer says.

“Go ahead” says the man.

Well, the cooler is full of water and there are six good sized trout slowly moving.

“I’ll need to see your license, sir”

“What for?”

“For catching these fish”

“I told you I didn’t catch anything, those are my pet trout”

“Your pet trout?”

“Yessir, those are my pet trout that swim in my big aquarium at home”

“Then why do you have them out here?”

“Well, they like to come out and swim in the river and play with the other fish sometimes. When they have had enough play time, I whistle and they come back and jump in the cooler”

“So you are telling me that your “pet trout” come back and jump in the cooler when you whistle?”

“Exactly”

“Sir, you need to show me your license or I’m going to right you a ticket”

“You don’t believe me?”

“No”

“Well how about I prove it to you”

“Ok sir, prove it to me”

So the man picks up the cooler, walks to the edge of the river and dumps the fish in. He stands up and starts to walk back to his truck with the cooler.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Aren’t you going to whistle?”

“What for?”

“To get your fish back?”

“What fish?”

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