Study: Tagging Fish Can Alarm Predators About Their Place

A recent study recommends that the sounds emitted by the tags that are put out on fish can alarm predators about its place and ultimately help them discover the accurate spot where they ought to chase at for their next food.

Certainly, the fish tagging works in such a way that when little tags are preset to fish for study, they convey their position to researchers by producing a pinging sound. Acoustic tags are generally utilized in mark-and-recapture studies to evaluate fish survival and stock well being. These tags provide ultrasonic frequencies thought to be vague to the fish that convey them. It is presently accepted that this sound really attempts to fish’s damage.

To research this viewpoint, a group of specialists from the Scotland’s University of St Andrews led an experiment with grey seals going about as predators. The scientists assembled a maze of 20 boxes two of which contained fish. One set of the fish was tagged and the other one was untagged.

About 20 trials were conducted by the researchers. It was discovered that the 10 grey seals were much faster to focus in on the pinging fish and went to the tagged box more than any other. This conduct demonstrated that they were reacting to the logical gear.

Amanda Stansbury, scientist from the University’s Sea Mammal Research Unit, stated, “The seals discovered tagged fish sooner and with less probing as compared to the fish without a tag. This implies that seals figured out how to utilize the sound from the pinging tags to discover where their sustenance was covered up. This lets us know that seals misuse new sounds, for example, fish tags, use them further bolstering their good fortune.”

Numerous past studies had additionally proposed that the sign was discernible to a few predators particularly seals.