{"id":25492,"date":"2018-11-14T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/?post_type=custom_news&p=25492"},"modified":"2018-11-14T07:58:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T15:58:25","slug":"oh-give-me-a-home-where-the-wild-cod-roam","status":"publish","type":"custom_news","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/news\/oh-give-me-a-home-where-the-wild-cod-roam\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Wild Cod Roam"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took a week for Bj\u00f6rn Bj\u00f6rnsson to train 20 wild cod. In a compelling demonstration of classical conditioning<\/a>, the aquaculture researcher at Iceland\u2019s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute taught the fish to associate a low-frequency sound with a free meal. It only took another day for Bj\u00f6rnsson\u2014with the help of one of his trained fish\u2014to teach another 19 wild cod.<\/p>\n

People might not think of cod as herd animals, but Bj\u00f6rnsson says cod are adept at reading social cues to learn where to grab a bite. The end result of this training<\/a>? Dozens of Atlantic cod congregating around a floating platform moored in an Icelandic fjord, ready to be plucked from the water in a fisher\u2019s net.<\/p>\n

In a case of the Wild West meets the open ocean, fish ranchers may one day ride the watery range with boats instead of horses, dropping forage fish into feeding stations and taking stock of their herds with sonar.<\/p>\n

Fish ranching\u2014rearing stocks of free roaming fish\u2014falls somewhere between traditional commercial fishing and fish farming. Proponents like Bj\u00f6rnsson say ranching is more efficient than farming and results in fewer accidental catches of endangered species or young cod than traditional fishing. In previous, larger-scale experiments that didn\u2019t employ sound-based training, Bj\u00f6rnsson and his colleagues found that just by leaving feeding stations in the water, thousands of adult cod would gather around. He says smaller fish species and younger cod tend to avoid the herds\u2014probably out of fear of being eaten. A 2012 paper<\/a>, also by Bj\u00f6rnsson, showed that ranching has the potential to yield higher profit margins than fishing or fish farming.<\/p>\n

Fish ranching is not an entirely new idea: it\u2019s been tried in Norway with wild saithe (a fish in the cod family), in Japan with red sea bream, and elsewhere. The addition of sound-based training, however, has the potential to make it even more effective.<\/p>\n

Yet aquacultural engineer Boaz Zion, of Israel\u2019s Agricultural Research Organization, says that even after nearly 20 years of effort, proponents of fish ranching have produced little momentum. Bj\u00f6rnsson and others have \u201ca long way to go proving the concept in a way that will convince commercial fishermen to get into it,\u201d says Zion, who was not involved with the research.<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rnsson understands why fishers and farmers are skeptical\u2014and the problems may have more to do with policy, law, and economics than the effectiveness of his technique. He says for ranching to be economically viable, ranchers would likely need exclusive rights to the area around their feeding stations to prevent other fishers from reaping the benefits of their investment. This idea, he says, is likely to be unpopular with commercial fishers. Aquaculturists accustomed to net pens, meanwhile, are reluctant to invest in free-ranging fish that could potentially wander off. But if these and other problems could be solved, Bj\u00f6rnsson estimates that cod ranching could account for around 10 percent of Iceland\u2019s annual catch.<\/p>\n

Of course, fish ranching using sound has problems of its own. Adding more sound to the ocean could exacerbate sound pollution, which already troubles many marine species. The sound needed to herd cod, however, can be quieter than the engine of a large vessel\u2014as long as feeding stations are close together, Bj\u00f6rnsson says.<\/p>\n

Whether fish ranching will ever transform the open sea into the open range is anyone\u2019s guess right now, but Bj\u00f6rnsson plans to continue his research. \u201cFew fishermen are going to read these papers,\u201d he says. \u201cBut hopefully some younger scientists will be inspired by these studies and are able to bring the idea a bit further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took a week for Bj\u00f6rn Bj\u00f6rnsson to train 20 wild cod. In a compelling demonstration of classical conditioning, the aquaculture researcher at Iceland\u2019s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute taught the fish to associate a low-frequency sound with a free <\/p>\n

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