Estimated read time: Less than a minute
SALT LAKE CITY — Without warning or apparent reason, dozens and dozens of fish simultaneously leaped out of the water.
It seems a little, well, fishy.
The cause of the sudden jump of a hundred or so silver carp was investigated by researchers.
Was it preplanned? Was it to avoid danger? For breeding? Was it something they learned in a school of fish?
The narrator, David Tennant, who is not a doctor of fish, describes the behavior as bizarre. According to the video, the carp are leaping 3 meters, or nearly 10 feet, out of the water.
The narrator says the answer lies just under the surface of the water: the motor of the boats. The motor causes a pressure wave that simulates the effect of oncoming predators.
This causes a ripple effect under the surface. Each alarmed fish scares its neighbors, who in turn scares their neighbors.
The result is as many as 200 silver carp are jumping out of fright at almost the same moment, the narrator says.
You could say that the fish are just doing the wave.
Have You Seen This?
