Researchers at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute have recently received a $270,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make this a reality:
That’s right… Forget the lines, hooks, bait, nets, all that crap. Just call them, and when they show up, scoop them up into a big net and eat ’em. Supposedly, it’s nothing more than classic Pavlovian conditioning: the researchers feed a group of fish in a tank right after playing a tone underwater. After repeating the 20 second tone 3 times a day for 2 weeks straight, “you have remote-control fish,” says Simon Miner, a research assistant on the project. “You hit that button [to play the sound], and they go into that [feeding] area, and they wait patiently.” The big question is whether or not the fish will remember. Preliminary results suggest that the fish will retain the the behavior for 5-10 days, but nobody is really sure what’ll happen when they try the same thing with 5,000 fish out in the ocean this spring. Even if they can only train half the fish to return until they’re large enough for market, it’ll still be more profitable than current fish farming methods. And, I’m sure, way tastier.
VIA [ Wired ]
This is so, totally unethical. Brainwashing fish is a scientific breakthrough? Maybe NOAA should use some of its research funds to start promoting veganism and, you know, trying to preserve the ocean and atmosphere rather than developing faster and more efficient means of extracting limited resources. Maybe if we yell a little louder….