why do fish travel in schools

Schooling Fish

How they swim so close without colliding.

Sarah Scott is a fact checker with more than 16 years of experience in researching, writing, and editing digital and print media. She has verified and edited articles on a variety of subjects for The Spruce Pets, including pet behavior, health, and care as well as the latest trends in products for animals in the home.

Few aquarium scenes are more enjoyable than a group of fish swimming in unison, changing directions in an instant, yet never colliding with each other. How are fish able to swim in such perfect unison? Why do some fish swim alone while others prefer living in schools? Is it necessary to keep aquarium fish in schools?

Not everything is known about schooling behavior, but here is what experts know about how and why fish swim in schools.

Why Fish Swim in Schools

First and foremost, schools protect fish from their enemies. It's the same rule our mothers taught us as youngsters, always stay in a group because there is safety in numbers. Predators find it far easier to chase down and gobble up a fish swimming all alone rather than trying to cut out a single fish from a huge group. The same holds in reverse. Fish can better defend their territory in a group. Bullies will think twice about facing an angry school of dozens or hundreds of fish.

It is also believed that swimming close together reduces friction and allows fish to conserve energy while swimming. When dinner time comes along, food is easier to find as a group. Having 50 sets of eyes and noses gives the school a better chance of locating food. Last but not least, when fish spawn a school ensures that at least some of their eggs will elude predators due to the sheer numbers produced by a large group of fish.

A complex combination of senses allows fish to achieve those smooth schooling movements we marvel at. At one time it was believed a leader in the school directed the movements of the entire school. However, it is now known that each fish responds to the movements of the other fish, as well as stimuli such as pheromones. If one fish moves in a different direction all the others sense it and move accordingly.

The anatomy of fish also factors into the schooling equation. Eye placement on the sides of the head allows the fish to readily see what is next to them and move accordingly. However, sight is not the only factor used in schooling. Fish can establish their placement and direction in a school by using hearing, lateral line, sight, and even the sense of smell.

Do All Fish School?

It is estimated that more than 25 percent of the world’s fish species school throughout their lives and many schooling fishes spend a large portion of their lives in schools. As a rule, smaller fish are more likely to live out their lives in schools, although some large fish will school together.

Furthermore, not all fish that school do so for protection in numbers. Some of the fiercest fish in the world live in schools. Piranha fish live in large schools that they are born into. Although they tolerate their brothers and sisters, a sick or weak piranha in a school will be eaten by the others.

How Many Fish Make a School?

There isn’t a magic number that defines a school. However, in the wild schools of fish are generally quite large, often numbering in the hundreds or even thousands. In captivity, schooling fish need to have at least four to six to create a comfortable school. The adage, the more the merrier, definitely applies to schools of fish. In other words, you can’t have too many fish in a school.

Fish That Prefer Schools

Quite a few popular freshwater fish prefer to live in schools. Barbs , Danios , and most Tetras like black phantom tetras should always be kept in schools. Loaches such as the Clown and Kuhli loach often will pine away if they are not kept in a school of their kind, while the weather loach doesn't need to be in a school. Even larger fish such as the Silver Dollar prefer to live in a school.

It's a good idea to do your homework before choosing and purchasing a new fish, so know you upfront if they are best kept in a school. If the fish you are considering prefers to live in a school you should plan on purchasing at least four of the same species. Generally, it’s best if you can purchase them all at the same time. If not, purchase as many as you can at once and make sure that adding additional fish to the school at a later time is not a source of stress for the species you've chosen.

Also consider the size of the tank required to keep a school, as schools require more space for the forward swimming motion of multiple fish. A good local fish shop will advise you on what is needed.

Marras, Stefano et al . Fish Swimming In Schools Save Energy Regardless Of Their Spatial Position . Behavioral Ecology And Sociobiology , vol 69, no. 2, pp. 219-226, 2014, Springer Science And Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/s00265-014-1834-4

Gruber, David F. et al . Bioluminescent Flashes Drive Nighttime Schooling Behavior And Synchronized Swimming Dynamics In Flashlight Fish . PLOS ONE , vol 14, no. 8, 2019, Public Library Of Science (Plos). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219852

Fish swimming together fare better in turbulent waters

By Laura Baisas

Posted on Jun 6, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

3 minute read

Deposit Photos

Schooling fish including zebrafish , rainbowfish, and opahs/moonfish like to stick together in the big blue. Scientists believe that traveling in schools has numerous evolutionary benefits , but it also could be more beneficial to their general movements . They also may have an easier time swimming through the ocean’s more turbulent waters than those that go it alone. The findings are described in a study published June 6 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology .

Do the locomotion

Locomotion –the way animals move from one place to another–is critical to several aspects of their behavior. Various movements are needed during their migration periods , reproduction, and when feeding. Many species have different adaptations to make moving around more efficient to compensate. Fish have sleek and streamlined bodies that create little resistance in the water, scales that allow for flexible movements and physical protection, and gills that extract oxygen.

“Generating movement through the environment is one of the defining features of animals. Yet the environment can be very challenging with obstacles and animals often face difficult conditions that increase the cost of movement,” study co-authors and evolutionary biologists Yangfan Zhang and George Lauder of Harvard University, tell Popular Science .

[Related: Why do we send so many fish to space? ]

Scientists in different fields have proposed several hypotheses for why the collective movements of animals are beneficial. It could enhance mating success, help them avoid predators, or make it easier for animals to communicate when finding food.

In this study , the team proposes a new hypothesis for navigating more challenging waters. Their turbulent sheltering hypothesis suggests that traveling in schools allows fish to shield each other from more disruptive water currents.

“The turbulence sheltering hypothesis has not been previously proposed so this study is the first to both propose and test it,” says Zhang. “For many years now, there have not been any substantially new ideas on why fish in particular might school and move as a collective group. The turbulence sheltering hypothesis provides a new idea for why fishes might gain an energetic advantage by moving as a school.”

Testing the turbulence sheltering hypothesis

To put this hypothesis to the test, the team ran trials with giant danios ( Devario aeqipinnatus ). These types of carp regularly swim in schools and are only about one to two inches long, despite the superlative in their name. The team observed the danios swimming alone or in groups of eight in both turbulent and more steadily flowing water. High-speed cameras captured the animals’ movements as they swam and the team simultaneously measured the fishes’ respiration rate and energy expenditure.

[Related: Making babies may take 10 times more energy than we thought .]

They found that the schooling fish spent up to 79 percent less energy when swimming in turbulent water compared to swimming alone. Schooling fish also clustered more closely together in the turbulent water compared to the more steady streams. Solitary fish had to beat their tails more vigorously to keep their same speed in more turbulent currents.

This activity is somewhat similar to competitive cyclists drafting off of one another during a triathlon to reduce drag.

“A significant difference between humans in a triathlon, or cyclists moving behind each other and benefiting from the reduced flow (called a drag wake) is that fish are accelerating the flow behind them,” says Zhang. “Previous research has shown that fish can even benefit from thrust wake (an increased fluid velocity). Fish move a bit more elegantly through the fluid than humans.”

‘Dramatic benefits’

The results add some support to the turbulence sheltering hypothesis, indicating that locomotion efficiency might be a driving factor behind whey schooling behavior evolved.

“The most surprising part of the study is the dramatic benefits that moving in a group confers when fish swim in turbulence,” says Zhang. “It’s much, much, better to swim in a school if the environmental flows are turbulent and challenging than it is to swim as a solitary individual. In future experiments, the team plans to conduct experiments to understand what specific mechanisms enable energy saving in individual animals when they move within a group. This data is valuable in general for understanding fish ecology and the fundamentals of hydrodynamics . It could also potentially be applied to the design and maintenance of habitats that are meant to harbor protected fish species or to hinder more invasive ones.

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Why do fish swim in schools? New study reveals unexpected benefits

Conservation
Environment

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF

Schools of fish moving in synchrony have long captivated those lucky enough to observe this phenomenon, often appearing as a single, synchronized organism . A recent study provides insight into one of the primary advantages of this behavior: swimming in groups requires much less energy to navigate choppy waters.

The benefits of collective swimming

The study , published in PLOS Biology , discovered that fish swimming in schools waste far less energy than fish swimming alone. “We discovered that, when swimming at high speeds and high turbulence levels, fish schools reduced their total energy expenditure (TEE, both aerobic and anaerobic energy) by 63 percent to 79 percent compared to solitary fish,” the investigators wrote. This significant energy reduction is due to the physical and physiological benefits of group locomotion.

The turbulent sheltering hypothesis

Researchers presented the “turbulent sheltering hypothesis,” which states that fish in schools can shield one other from rough currents, making it easier to navigate turbulent waters. “Moving in turbulence is particularly challenging and energetically expensive for solitary fish,” the study authors stated. For example, solitary creek chub had a 22 percent reduction in maximum sustained swimming speed in turbulent conditions, but solitary Atlantic salmon had a locomotion cost of roughly 150 percent.

Experimental findings

Researchers tested their idea with giant danios ( Devario aeqipinnatus ). They saw the fish swim in groups of eight or alone in both smooth and rough water. High-speed cameras recorded their movements, while a respirometer measured energy expenditure and respiration rates. The findings revealed that fish in schools clustered closer together in turbulent water, whereas lone fish had to beat their tails harder to maintain speed in adverse currents.

Evolutionary and environmental implications

The study implies that locomotion efficiency plays an important role in the evolution of fish schooling behavior . “We show that being in a school substantially reduces the energetic cost for fish swimming in a turbulent environment, compared to swimming alone,” the researchers said. This observation lends support to the theory that schooling behavior helps individual fish reduce the increased energetic expenditure associated with swimming in turbulence.

Why does this research matter?

Understanding the energy dynamics of fish schools can aid in a variety of ecological and conservation endeavors. The hydrodynamic concepts discovered in the study could be used for habitat maintenance, aiding in the protection of certain species or the control of invading ones. Furthermore, the study’s findings may have implications for research into the energy dynamics of group movement in other aquatic and aerial creatures.

The researchers stressed the larger ecological implications of their findings. “Studies on animal locomotion and turbulence have profound implications for a better understanding of the planetary ecosystem, e.g., turbulence generated by groups of fish can contribute to vertical mixing of the ocean,” they stated. Vertical mixing is important for fertilizer dispersion and overall ocean health .

Swimming together allows fish to negotiate difficult seas more efficiently, which may have influenced the evolution of this habit. The work not only improves our understanding of fish ecology and hydrodynamics, but it may also have implications for conservation and other species studies.

Source study: PLOS Biology— Collective movement of schooling fish reduces the costs of locomotion in turbulent conditions

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How Do Fish Swim In Schools? Scientists Say It's In Their Genes

How do fish swim in schools, effortlessly coordinating their every move? The answer appears to be ingrained in their genes.

The genetic basis underlying the complex, social behavior of schooling is revealed in two studies published Sept. 12 in the journal Current Biology. The studies suggest that schooling is not a learned behavior , and instead show it relies on several regions of the fish genome.

The findings may point to the genetic underpinning of why humans also are social , and tend to gather in groups, some experts said, although others debated this.

Stickleback to school

Most fish exhibit schooling during some phase of their life cycle, research has shown. Fish evolved to swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators, improve their foraging and swim more efficiently.

Unlike shoaling, in which fish merely swim loosely together, schooling requires coordinated body positions and synchronized movement. Fish in schools need to sense their environment with high accuracy, maintain awareness of their position within the school, and respond quickly to changes in both water currents and movement of the group.

Exactly how fish pull off this feat has remained elusive.

In one of the new studies, researchers led by Catherine Peichel, a human biology researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, studied sticklebacks, small fish about 3 inches (8 centimeters) long that live in both salt and fresh water. [ Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish ]

The researchers created a handful of fake fish models, suspended them in the water and whirled them about, to entice the real stickleback to join schools.

By crossbreeding one kind of stickleback prone to schooling with another kind of stickleback more reluctant to join a school, the researchers identified two genomic regions in sticklebacks associated with schooling. One of these regions is also associated with development of a highly specialized sensory structure unique to fish, known as the lateral line, which can detect vibrations in the water.

The lateral line is made up of cells called neuromasts, which are similar to the hair cells found in the human ear and enable the fish to sense changes in water currents and respond accordingly.

In the second study, researchers led by Clifford Tabin of Harvard Medical School in Boston studied the Mexican tetra, a freshwater fish also about 3 inches long that lives in open rivers and lakes, and sometimes in the streams of caves. The cave-dwelling variety is blind, and largely albino.

The surface-dwelling tetra swim in schools, but the blind cavefish do not, which suggested to the researchers that vision is important to schooling. But after crossbreeding the two varieties and conducting a genetic analysis, the team determined that as the cavefish evolved, they lost the ability to school, and they lost their vision in separate events.

This provided more evidence that schooling behavior is genetic-based and not learned, the researchers said.

Both research teams identified only genetic regions, not the exact genes, controlling the schooling behavior.

Of fish and men

The teams remained split, however, on how these findings may relate to humans. Anna Greenwood, a member of Peichel's team, said the findings could be applicable to complex social human behaviors.

"Because an evolutionarily shared neural circuit, as well as some of the same neurochemicals and hormones, control social behavior in all vertebrates, what we learn about genetic changes in fish could ultimately provide insight into human behavioral variation," Greenwood told LiveScience.

Hans Hofmann, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in either study, said the stickleback work rebuts the assertion that human behavior is too complex to understand.

"I think it shows that even such complex behaviors associated with other individuals in a very rigid and organized manner can be dissected genetically," Hofmann said. "Studies like this tell us that we might get there eventually."

Tabin, however, said the findings of his Mexican cavefish study "do not tell us anything at all about human social behavior."

But he also said that both studies can tell researchers much about the evolution of schooling behaviors in fish, and that's what makes it worthwhile.

Follow LiveScience @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original article on LiveScience .

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Understanding Fish Schools and Behaviors for Conservation

Anyone who has seen a nature documentary or Disney’s Finding Nemo imagines fish as either loners or traveling in dense schools. As it turns out, schooling behaviors are linked to unique genetic structures found only in schooling fish, linking the behavior to evolution and not just social benefits. So the iconic directions scene in Finding Nemo may not actually be all that out of touch with reality.

Understanding fish schooling behaviors is important to developing a deeper understanding of how fish communicate as a whole. Furthermore, there is much to be learned from this behavior which appears unique to schooling populations. For example, in schools, fish will maintain a certain amount of distance but still be close enough that they are able to sense their neighbor’s movements. Their sensing ability goes beyond simply being able to feel what’s happening and also helps direct them during migration events and protect the group from predators.

Why Fish School (or Shoal)

In terms of what to call a collection of fish, there are two terms generally used according to the Scientific American , fish can either be schooling or shoaling. Schooling involves fish of the same species forming a cohesive unit (sometimes a structure like a bait ball or simply a collection of fish near each other) that navigates the ocean together and in sync. Shoaling differs in that the species can vary, and the fish are not attempting to navigate as a cohesive unit. The best way of spotting the difference is by seeing what direction the fish are facing. Schools will always have the fish facing the same direction, while shoals will feature fish facing multiple directions.

Even in the case of a formal structure being made, like a bait ball, fish will face the same direction. Bait balls are made when fish sense a predator nearby, and the formation protects the most fish. This concept of a bait ball goes against many natural instincts to scatter, as observed with land creates, but the ocean is a different field altogether. Here, if the fish were to scatter, they’d be more easily picked off and exposed to the predator, so instead, they group together to limit the casualties.

Of course, that leaves the question of, How do they know where to go? The answer lies in fish biology.

The Biology of Fish Schools

For a long time, the reason and means by which fish schooled were unknown to scientists. However, several studies emerged to help elaborate on this behavior. Two of those studies, referenced by Scientific American, show that schooling is not a learned behavior but “instead relies on several regions of the fish genome.”

There are, of course, evolutionary benefits to schools. According to the Scientific American, “Fish evolved to swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators, improve their foraging and swim more efficiently.” In 2013, a study was performed on sticklebacks which identified two genomic regions associated with schooling, a breakthrough in understanding the behavior.

One of these regions is associated with the formation of the lateral line, a highly sensitive structure unique to schooling fish. The lateral line detects vibrations and current changes in the water. The lateral line is made up of cells called neuromasts. The other region had to do with sight, though there is no set answer on if the fish rely on vision simply to see what the other fish are doing or if it’s more complex. When studying blind cavefish, the species, which is also largely albino, was hesitant to form schools. Vision was determined to be the cause of their lack of attendance in schools “after crossbreeding the two varieties [of Mexican tetra] and conducting a genetic analysis, the team determined that as the cavefish evolved, they lost the ability to school, and they lost their vision in separate events.”

A bait ball (Credit: Tom Woodward, via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Together, these studies concluded that at least two regions of fish biology result in schooling behavior: vision and the formation of a lateral line. The lateral line is significant as it is one of the ways fish ensure they are oriented correctly in regard to their peers and also how they sense an incoming predator.

Fish hone this skill in their schools, creating and following two distinct gears or speeds the group travels at, as theorized in a 2016 study . These gears include a slow, steady speed useful for cruising around and conserving energy and another, more rapid speed that would be useful for escaping from predators in a flash.

“Some beautiful physics is at work in (fish) schools … with each individual creating a wave in the fluid while also ‘surfing’ on the wave left by its upstream neighbor,” said Leif Ristroph, an assistant professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in the statement. He is the lead author of the study published in the scientific journal, Nature Communications.

From the pacing to the direction they’re traveling, much of fish schooling behavior is connected to their genetic makeup. These behaviors and structures have been determined by millions of years of evolution, maintaining schools and shoals for the social and practical benefits they provide. While the findings may seem insignificant, understanding fish behavior is important to habitat restoration and conservation efforts. If a school of salmon is attempting to migrate upstream and the group is split up due to a dam or some other obstruction, the school can no longer serve its intended purpose, and the group disperses throughout the river. Therefore, understanding these behaviors as much as possible is important for fishery managers handling marine and freshwater habitats.

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How Do Fish Schools Work?

Fish schools turn, contract, expand, even part and come back together all without missing a beat. Yet fish are individuals, not a hive mind.

Large, coordinated school of fish, moving and shimmering in unison, are mesmerizing to behold: hundreds or thousands of individuals, moving together as if under radio control, performing movements both simple and complicated. Schools turn, contract, expand, even part and come back together all without missing a beat.

There are actually two types of fish aggregations, shoals and schools . A shoal is a looser group, sometimes consisting of different species that hang out together (often temporarily) but are not organized. Schools are highly structured with coordinated movements and a common direction. A group of fish can switch from shoaling to schooling and back again. Schooling seems to have evolved as a defense against predators and in some cases as a way to increase feeding efficiency. Every fish in a school must execute perfectly to get the best results.

Fish schools are all the more amazing when one considers that there’s no leader. Schools come together on their own, a phenomenon known as self-organizing. The secret to cohesion hides in plain sight: a school does not need to act together, instead every individual needs to coordinate with nearby individuals. In a coordinated school, one fish turns, then it’s neighbors turn, then their neighbors turn, etc., all in the blink of an eye. A massive coordinated school is thousands of individual movements that make up one overarching movement.

Each fish coordinates with its neighbors through a combination of visual contact and their lateral line, an organ along each side of the body that can sense extremely subtle pressure changes in the water around the fish. If a neighbor turns or speeds up, for example, it will be felt in the lateral line and the fish can respond accordingly. In this system, the number of neighbors to which each fish pays attention helps determine the size of the group and the degree of coordination.

Each fish maintains a “zone of repulsion” with its neighbors where a fish automatically turns away from a neighbor in order to avoid collision. Outside that zone is the “zone of orientation” where each fish attempts to match its neighbors. When a school is moving together in a line, orienting to match neighbors is the dominant action. When a school is stationary, maintaining close distance between individuals is a greater priority.

Exactly how really complicated movements are coordinated is unknown, nor is it always certain how a large maneuver begins. Perhaps one fish takes an action, say attempts to evade a predator, its neighbors pick up on that movement and soon the whole school responds. But that speculation does not address maneuvers where each fish plays a different role, such as formation of the well-known bait balls when under attack. More sophisticated models are in the works to try and understand these phenomena.

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One Response to “How Do Fish Schools Work?”

[…] magnetizados. (No lo son, obviamente). Pescado, también, siga instrucciones simples. A través del contacto visual y las señales sensoriales, los peces tienen un órgano a lo largo de cada lado de su cuerpo que puede sentir cambios sutiles […]

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Science News Explores

Swimming in schools lets fish save lots of energy.

Each tail flap uses less than half as much energy than swimming solo, new data show

a school of Jack mackerel fish as seen looking up through the water

Fish schools can have up to thousands of fish. This is a school of Jack mackerel, a small green and silvery fish, swimming around Ship Rock, Catalina Island in California.

Adam Obaza, NOAA Fisheries

Underwater sprints

Lauder and Zhang worked with giant danio ( Devario aequipinnatus ), small fish that love to swim.

Sometimes the team put eight at a time into a water tank shaped a bit like a racetrack. Other times, they just put in a single fish. The danio didn’t loop around the tank like race cars. Instead, they swam in one spot, like a runner on a treadmill, as a motor pushed the tank’s water around, creating a current.

As the fish swam, a special device called a respirometer (Res-pur-AH-meh-tur) measured how much oxygen they used. Oxygen helps to fuel muscles. For example, people who sprint use a lot of oxygen. Afterward, they often need a few minutes to recover and catch their breath. Here, the researchers used oxygen as a gauge of how much energy the fish used to swim in place.

One fish, a few fish…

Researchers filmed giant danio ( Devario aequipinnatus ) in an experimental flow tank to study their movements and energy use.

To make them swim fast — like a sprinter — the researchers increased the speed of the circulating water current. When they slowed the water, the fish slowed too.

Schooling fish used less oxygen than when they swam alone. And, they took less time to recover from a sprint. In other words, they had an easier time “catching their breath” after schooling.

In all, the researchers repeated this experiment five times.

“It’s a beautiful, very careful examination of the energetics of a group of fish swimming,” says David Coughlin. He’s a fish biologist at Widener University in Chester, Pa.

By schooling, fish can save their energy for other important things, says Frank Fish. He works at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, where he studies the dynamics of motion in animals. For instance, if fish are young, they can put that energy into growth. As adults, they can use it to reproduce or to avoid predators .

Do you have a science question? We can help!

Submit your question here , and we might answer it an upcoming issue of Science News Explores

Inside the school

But, Fish notes, “That’s not the complete story.” From the new data, “we don’t know what’s happening inside the school.”

Researchers still lack solid evidence about why swimming in schools helps fish save energy. They do have a few ideas, however.

Flapping their tails from side to side against the water moves a fish forward. This causes the water behind the animal to spin. In one study, Fish observed three fish swimming together. When one swam between and behind the others, the fish in the back saved energy . But in a big school, Fish notes, it gets more complicated to understand the energy used in those movements.

If you put one fish in the middle of a school, there will be fish swimming to the left and right, above and below, in front of and behind it. That creates countless interactions, he says. And all that tail flapping means endless spiraling whirls of water, each colliding and crashing into another.

These whirls of water could make it easier for schooling fish to swim through, says Fish. This might even give them the ability to breathe a bit easier. But all this has yet to be proven.

“Now that we know there’s this great benefit,” says Coughlin. “Let’s figure out biomechanically — in terms of fluid dynamics — what are ways in which their interactions are helping them.”

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Future fish robots

This new study could help engineers make fish robots, says study author Zhang. “Nothing we make moves through water as gracefully and effortlessly as fish,” he says. Instead of one big fish robot, they could make 20 small schooling fish robots to save energy. These robots could help count all the fish in the sea or find sources of pollution. Making machines that mimic living things is called biomimicry.

The results might also help researchers protect real fish. Most fish derive their heat from their environment. So their temperature is the same as the water around them. As water temps rise, such as with climate change, it takes more energy for fish to swim and live. By understanding the energy costs of fish movement, scientists can predict how climate change will impact their lives, says Coughlin.

“In the face of climate change,” says Coughlin, “we really want to understand things like [the energy needs] of fish.”

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September 18, 2013

Why Fish Don't Need to Be "Schooled" in Swimming

The answer lies in the fish genome, suggesting that complex social behavior in other animals, including humans, is also genetically ingrained

By Jennifer Sargent & LiveScience

How do fish swim in schools, effortlessly coordinating their every move? The answer appears to be ingrained in their genes.

The genetic basis underlying the complex, social behavior of schooling is revealed in two studies published September 12 in Current Biolog y. The studies suggest that schooling is not a learned behavior , and instead show it relies on several regions of the fish genome.

The findings may point to the genetic underpinning of why humans also are social , and tend to gather in groups, some experts said, although others debated this.

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Stickleback to school

Exactly how fish pull off this feat has remained elusive.

The researchers created a handful of fake fish models, suspended them in the water and whirled them about, to entice the real stickleback to join schools.

The lateral line is made up of cells called neuromasts, which are similar to the hair cells found in the human ear and enable the fish to sense changes in water currents and respond accordingly.

This provided more evidence that schooling behavior is genetic-based and not learned, the researchers said.

Both research teams identified only genetic regions, not the exact genes, controlling the schooling behavior.

Of fish and men

The teams remained split, however, on how these findings may relate to humans. Anna Greenwood, a member of Peichel's team, said the findings could be applicable to complex social human behaviors.

Tabin, however, said the findings of his Mexican cavefish study "do not tell us anything at all about human social behavior."

But he also said that both studies can tell researchers much about the evolution of schooling behaviors in fish, and that's what makes it worthwhile.

Follow LiveScience @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original article on LiveScience .

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Swarming Up A Storm: Why Animals School And Flock

Nell Greenfieldboyce

A school of Blue Tang fish swimming together off the Caribbean island of Bonaire. It has long been assumed that the schooling behavior of fish evolved in part to protect animals from being attacked by predators. David J. Phillip/AP hide caption

By tricking live fish into attacking computer-generated "prey," scientists have learned that animals like birds and fish may indeed have evolved to swarm together to protect themselves from the threat of predators.

"Effectively, what we're doing here is we're getting predatory fish to play a video game," says Iain Couzin, who studies collective animal behavior at Princeton University. "And through playing that game, through seeing which virtual prey items they attack, we can get a very deep understanding of as to how behavioral interactions among prey affect their survival."

It has long been assumed that the schooling behavior of fish and the flocking behavior of birds evolved in part because it helps protect individuals from being attacked by predators, says Couzin. "But in actual fact there is surprisingly little direct evidence."

That's because it's been hard to come up with experiments that could test how different kinds of group behavior affect predation risk. "It is very hard to manipulate the behavior of, say, a bird flock and then see what effect it has on a falcon. That's virtually impossible," says Christos Ioannou at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Together with colleague Vishwesha Guttal, they decided to see if they could create a virtual population of pretend fish that would look convincingly real to a predator.

The predator they selected was the bluegill sunfish. They went to a local lake with nets, collected a bunch of them, and took the fish back to the lab.

Starlings fly over the Piazza Venezia as night falls in Rome. Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

"The nice thing about bluegill sunfish is they're generalist predators. They will tend to hunt pretty much anything that's alive and in the environment that's smaller than them," says Couzin. "And so we don't need to train them to attack our virtual prey."

The prey were little dots of light projected onto a transparent film on the inside of the tank. On the computer screen, the dots look red, but the projected images look white or slightly pink. "To the fish they look very much like little zooplankton, little creatures that live in the water body that move around, that we know group together in the natural environment," says Couzin.

The predatory fish would hover near a dot, and then strike — only to get a mouthful of nothing.

The computer-generated prey items were each programmed to follow a different set of rules for behavior. For example, some were strongly attracted to others and wanted to be close to them. Others preferred to go off on their own. And others would match their direction of travel with whoever was nearby.

The researchers kept track of which individuals got attacked, and programmed the system so that those individuals' behaviors were less likely to be transmitted to the next generation of prey. "And so we could actually allow our virtual population to evolve the strategies that best avoid being attacked by real predators," says Couzin.

What they learned is that in response to the attacks, the virtual prey spontaneously formed groups that not only aggregate but move together.

"I think it's the first evidence that this coordinated behavior we see in bird flocks and fish schools, where individuals are really highly coordinated in the direction they're heading, has an anti-predatory effect," says Ioannou. "To our knowledge that's the first time it's been done in a really clear, experimental way."

The results are published in the journal Science .

Couzin says that his lab is continuing to develop the technology to do more sophisticated tests. They're adding a new projection system that allows the virtual prey to appear to move in three dimensions, and an eye-tracking technology for the fish that would give the virtual prey some real-time information about the predator's intentions.

"These prey can now respond to the predator, they can now avoid the predator," says Couzin, "and so we've really taken this technology much, much further, allowing us to continue exploring this integration of the real and the virtual worlds."

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Why do fish swim in schools?

There’s nothing quite like watching fish swim perfectly in-sync with each other in one big group. They change direction within a second, left, right, up, down, effortlessly coordinating their moves. But not once do they bump into each other. This mesmerising behaviour is known as swimming in a school and it’s a wonder of the natural world. But why do fish do this, and what makes it possible? Although the science of schooling isn’t fully yet known, it’s been widely studied with many theories as to why fish like swimming together. Here’s everything the experts know!

What exactly is a school of fish?

A school is a group of fish from a single species, working together and swimming in the same direction. Be careful not to mistake it for a shoal… A shoal is a single species of fish hanging together in a group, but swimming around in different directions. A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless! So, how many fish make a school? Well, there isn’t an exact number, but in the wild, you can find schools with hundreds or even thousands of fish. Impressive right? The minimum number of fish you’d need to create a school would be at least 4.

Fish don’t just swim in schools because they love the company…

It’d be easy to assume that fish swim in schools because they simply enjoy spending time together, just like us humans. Although it’s a nice thought, and we’re sure they do appreciate the company, science says otherwise. Studies suggest that schooling isn’t a learned behaviour, and instead appears to be ingrained in their fishy genes. Many species evolved to swim this way to protect themselves from predators, increase the chances of finding their next meal, and also to help them swim more efficiently. How does this work? Well as the saying goes, there’s safety in numbers. It’s a lot easier to hunt and wolf down a little fish swimming on its own, compared to singling out and attacking a fish from a large group. The hundreds of identical fish confuse predators and make it a lot harder for them to fill their bellies. The close proximity of this swimming style also reduces friction between the fish. You wouldn’t think it, but this reduced friction means it’s less effort for the fish to swim, helping them conserve their energy. Swimming in a large group also makes dinner time a lot easier. When you’ve got thousands of beady eyes on the look-out for something tasty, it takes half the time to capture your prey.

How do fish swim so closely without bumping into each other?

This is where it gets scientific. Fish have lots of senses, including their sight, smell and hearing. It’s the use of these senses as well as others, which help them glide smoothly together in time. The fish react to the movement of those surrounding them, so if one fish changes direction, the rest of the fish in the school sense the movement and follow. Pretty cool, right?

Not all fish swim in schools…

Most fish swim in a school at least once throughout their life, however, there are a few species which simply prefer living alone. Although it’s more common to find smaller fish in a school, like basslets, fusiliers and herring, some large fish do too. For example, salmon, barracuda and bluefin tuna. Did you know? Even fish like piranhas can be found swimming in a school. In this case, piranhas are born into a school, and if an unrelated piranha tries to join later in life, it’ll be attacked and killed by the others.

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Wonder of the Day #286

Do Fish Swim In Schools In the Summer?

SCIENCE — Life Science

Have You Ever Wondered...

Do fish swim in schools in the summer?
What's the difference between shoaling and schooling?
Why do fish swim in schools?
protection ,
Oceanography ,
Schooling ,

Why are fish so smart? Because they swim in schools! Ha! That's an oldie but a goodie, right?

Even though many schools are out for the summer, most fish are still swimming in schools wherever they may be. Let's take a closer look at why most fish tend to stick together.

When fish stay together for social reasons, biologists say they are "shoaling." If they also swim together in the same direction, they are "schooling."

So why do fish shoal and school together? The main reason appears to be that there's safety in numbers.

Staying together in schools helps to protect fish from their enemies. While a predator might easily grab a fish by itself, it's much harder for a predator to single out a victim if a fish is surrounded by hundreds of his closest friends.

Hanging out in schools also has a few other benefits. Scientists think that swimming close together may reduce friction in the water and make it easier for fish to swim and conserve energy.

When it's time to eat, it's also easier to find food as a group . A lone fish might be able to find a meal on his own, but having hundreds of sets of eyes and noses on the prowl for food is even better.

Not all fish shoal or school , though. Scientists estimate that at least 80 percent of all fish will school at some time in their lives. Some fish — often larger species — choose to live solitary lives.

If fish do decide to school , exactly how many fish does it take to be a school ? While there's no magic number that equals a school , there would usually need to be at least five or more fish to be considered a school .

In the wild, though, fish schools can be huge . In large bodies of water, schools of fish numbering in the hundreds or even thousands are not uncommon.

If you've ever seen a huge school of fish swimming together in unison , you may have wondered how they keep from swimming into each other. Scientists believe fish use a combination of all of their senses to keep track of the movements of the fish around them.

Having eyes on the sides of their heads helps fish easily to see what's going on around them. Sight isn't the only tool fish use, though. They also use hearing and even their sense of smell to stay with the group .

Wonder What's Next?

We hope tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day will be especially memorable!

Ready to swim with the fishes? Find a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities:

Do you believe there's safety in numbers? Think about your day-to-day activities. What types of things do you prefer to do with friends or family members? Can you think of examples of situations that have scared you or made you nervous? For example, is it easier to ride a scary roller coaster if your best friend comes along? Do you think human beings ever do things in a way that's similar to a school of fish? Discuss your ideas with a friend or family member.
Ask an adult friend or family member to take you on a field trip to a local lake. Be sure to choose a lake that's a popular spot for fishermen. What are you going to do there? Look for schools of fish, of course! Walk alongside the lake, checking all the shallow areas where it's easy to see. Do you spot any small fish swimming in groups? Be patient! Spotting fish can take some time. As soon as you spot a group of fish, try to count the number of fish within the group. Have fun searching for schools of fish!
One of the interesting quirks of the English language is the wide variety of collective nouns we use to describe groups of animals. Although we could just use the term "group" to refer to all groups of animals, instead we use many different — and often quite interesting — terms depending upon what animal we're talking about. A murder of crows…a herd of elephants…a pride of lions — these are just a few interesting examples. But what would you call a group of badgers, buzzards, cheetahs, giraffes, monkeys, or turkeys? Take a guess and then check here to find out if you were right!

Did you get it?

Wonder words.

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We're glad this Wonder helped you with your presentation, boiii. For most reports, it's important to research several sources to get all the information you need.

We're glad you are WONDERing, squishy! We hope this Wonder has inspired you to continue digging and learning about goliath groupers! You can find information online and at your local library! :)

Hi, bryston! Great question! We're glad you're WONDERing! We encourage you to embark on your own Wonder Journey to learn more about fish! We're sure you can find lots of information at the library and online! :)

Billy bob Joe

We're glad you're having fun WONDERing, xavier! Thanks for joining the discussion! :)

We're glad you liked this WONDER, Billy bob Joe! It is amazing that so many fish are able to swim together. Enjoy the rest of your day! :)

WONDERful question, Mark Gura! Some fish are born into schools and live in schools their whole life. Other fish species don't join schools until they are older and some prefer the solitary life. We encourage you to do more research about specific fish species and schooling to learn even more! We hope you're having a WONDERful day! :)

Welcome back, Mark Gura! You're right, many fish do join schools for protection because you are always safer in numbers. The reason for joining schools or not joining varies on the species of fish. Doing more research is always a WONDERful idea! :)

Very interesting. I would have expected just the opposite, that immature fish join the school for protection and that when they grow up to be 'big and bad' they move off on their own. I WILL do some personal research into this!

Wonderopolis

We don't think that a school fish are able to make or read symbols, Brain. Thanks for WONDERing with us! :)

The Shedd Aquarium sounds like a fun field trip and great place to WONDER. If you'd like to WONDER and learn more about fish, check out these great Wonders. #62 How Do Fish Breathe Underwater? #760 Do Fish in Aquariums Swim in Freshwater or Saltwater? #1033 What Fish Has the Largest Teeth? #1213 Do Fish Sleep with Their Eyes Open? Happy WONDERing! :)

WOHOO, we love fish, too, Ellie! We hope you enjoyed learning about how fish travel, too! Have a WONDERful day! :)

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Question 1 of 3

When fish stay together for social reasons, biologists say they are what?

a shoaling Correct!
b schooling Not Quite!
c socializing Not Quite!
d partying Not Quite!

Question 2 of 3

When fish swim together in the same direction, biologists say they are what?

a shoaling Not Quite!
b schooling Correct!
c directioning Not Quite!
d striking Not Quite!

Question 3 of 3

There usually needs to be at least how many fish swimming together in the same direction to be considered a school?

a one Not Quite!
b two Not Quite!
c five Correct!
d twenty Not Quite!

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Genetics of how and why fish swim in schools: Research sheds light on complex social behavior

How and why fish swim in schools has long fascinated biologists looking for clues to understand the complexities of social behavior. A new study by a team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center may help provide some insight.

To be published online in the Sept. 12 issue of Current Biology, the study found that two key components of schooling -- the tendency to school and how well fish do it -- map to different genomic regions in the threespine stickleback, a small fish native to the Northern Hemisphere. That's important, said lead author Anna Greenwood, Ph.D., because it suggests that if researchers can identify the genes that influence the fishes' interest in being social, they may be closer to understanding how genes drive human social behavior.

"The motivation to be social is common among fish and humans," said Greenwood, a staff scientist in the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutch. "Some of the same brain regions and neurological chemicals that control human social behavior are probably involved in fish social behavior as well."

'Some kind of genetic factor' controlling behavior Greenwood and several colleagues in the Peichel Lab at Fred Hutch have been studying sticklebacks for several years to understand the genesis of natural variation. In a previous study, they found that a group of marine sticklebacks from the Pacific Ocean in Japan schooled strongly, while a second group from a lake in British Columbia preferred hiding out and were less able to maintain the precisely parallel formation required for schooling.

Though both groups were raised in identical lab conditions, they behaved differently from each other when placed together in a schooling situation.

"That really suggests that there's some kind of genetic factor controlling this difference," Greenwood said.

This time around, the researchers used lab-raised hybrids of the strongly schooling, saltwater-dwelling marine sticklebacks and the schooling-averse sticklebacks that live in freshwater.

Alison Bell, Ph.D., an associate professor of animal biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said the linking of behaviors to different genomic regions in the same species -- and in particular, social behavior that depends on the behavior of others -- makes the study especially compelling.

"I think that's very significant," she said. "It's been hard to find regions of the genome that are associated with any kind of behavioral traits in natural populations. Behavior is very plastic and it's subject to environmental influences, so it's been really tricky to do that."

Hans Hofmann, Ph.D., a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, said the study also refutes the assertion that human behavior is too complex to understand.

"I think it shows that even such complex behaviors associated with other individuals in a very rigid and organized manner can be dissected genetically," he said. "Studies like this tell us that we might get there eventually."

Old bicycle wheel and lab motor used in experiment Fish school primarily for protection from predators, and also to make swimming and foraging more efficient. Schools of fish in the wild are dynamic and fluid, but for both studies the Fred Hutch researchers had to create an environment in which they could observe the fish in unchanging conditions.

Building the device used for both experiments proved a challenge. The researchers suspended an old bicycle wheel above a circular acrylic tank and found a motor from an old lab shaker that could turn the wheel, but were stumped about how to connect them.

Greenwood and co-author Abigail Wark scoured craft shops and hardware stores looking for a suitable part, trying everything from plastic bra straps to necklaces before finding some silicone tubing that worked.

"It was a few weeks of going around to shops," Greenwood said.

They made a mold to create model fish from resin tinted with grey pigment, dabbing on eyes with black paint to make them look more realistic. The eight models (they found that eight is the minimum number to get fish to school in a lab setting) were suspended from the bike wheel with wire.

Beyond its findings connecting specific behaviors with genomic regions, the study also found that the same regions of the genome appear to control both the stickleback's ability to school as well as the anatomy of its lateral line, a system of organs that detect movement and vibration in water, and contain the same sensory hair cells found in the human ear.

That suggests a single gene could cause fish to detect their environment differently, Greenwood said, and supports the long-held notion that schooling behavior is controlled in part by the lateral line.

It provides a promising starting point in trying to locate the gene involved, and Fred Hutch researchers are now working on manipulating the gene they think causes changes in the stickleback's lateral line to see if that alters the fishes' schooling behavior. Research on schooling behavior in fish may seem an odd fit for a cancer research center, but Greenwood said natural variation can influence not just behavior, but also susceptibility to illness and disease.

"If we can understand the process by which evolution works and the genes that tend to be affected during evolution in these other model systems, we can apply that to humans," she said.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

Anna K. Greenwood, Abigail R. Wark, Kohta Yoshida, Catherine L. Peichel. Genetic and Neural Modularity Underlie the Evolution of Schooling Behavior in Threespine Sticklebacks . Current Biology , 12 September 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.058

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Why do fish school?

4/9/2020 3:36:00 PM
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Have you ever wondered why fish group together in schools, like in this depth finder? We tell you why! | Iowa DNR

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What’s the difference between a shoal, a school and a pod?

Groups of aquatic life get classified depending on whether they are a single type or mixture of species, or whether they are fish or mammals.

Dr Helen Scales

Asked by: Hannah McBride, Southend

When fish, shrimp or other aquatic creatures swim together in a loose cluster, this is typically called a shoal. It can be a mix of different species. A school is a group of the same fish species swimming together in synchrony; turning, twisting and forming sweeping, glinting shapes in the water. Fish probably do this to confuse predators and to save energy (by using the ‘slipstreams’ of other fish). Pods are herds of marine mammals including whales, dolphins, walruses and seals.

Are fish in a shoal all the same age?
How do schools of fish swim in perfect unison?

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How And Why Do Fish Swim In Schools?

Before we start to examine this interesting phenomenon, we first have to make a distinction between schooling fish and shoaling fish . When fish are shoaling, they can be observed congregating in large numbers, but without a (seemingly) clear pattern or goal. A shoal can consist of a number of different species as well as different age groups and sizes.

A school of fish, on the other hand, consists of fish exclusively belonging to the same species and, in most cases, more or less of the same size. A further distinction is a fact that a school of fish seems to behave like one organism, so to speak. But how and why do fish swim in schools?

A school of fish appears to be a well-drilled military regiment or a choreographed dance troupe. In a remarkable fashion, every individual fish seems to be able to hold its position relative to the fish next to it at a constant distance and the school will maneuver as if on command. Especially when trying to escape predators, fish in a school will perform near-instantaneous movements which defy belief.

In this article, I will briefly explore the reasons how and why fish swim in schools and I will also try to give an explanation as to how they are able to achieve this amazing harmonious action using research done by experts in the field. Finally, I will relate some of my experiences doing battle with two types of schooling fish.

How Do They Do It?

According to scientists, fish are able to perform these amazing feats through a combination of visual contact with other fish in its near vicinity as well as the use of their lateral line . The latter is a visual organ on each side of its body that is extremely susceptible to pressure changes, however small, that occurs in the near vicinity of a fish. The lateral line runs along each side of the fish from the gill covers to the base of the tail. It also detects water currents and vibrations.

Depending on what its close companion does, whether speeding up or quickly turning, this will be picked up by the lateral line with an immediate response by the owner thereof.

Furthermore, each fish maintains a “private zone” which keeps it protected from collisions with its mates. If a neighbor encroaches on this exclusive space, the fish will automatically turn away thereby avoiding physical contact.

Outside of this zone, there exists a “zone of orientation” where each fish constantly tries to emulate the other fish in its close vicinity. This action is the most pronounced when the school is moving together.

Why Do Fish Swim in Schools?

First of all, fish prefer to congregate in a school for protection against other predatory species . The old saying: “Safety in numbers” has never been more apt than in this instance! It is just so much more reassuring to know that you are part of a group of individuals counted in their thousands (or even millions) if some hungry nasties with sharp teeth start knocking about looking for fresh seafood.

Obviously fish don’t think about it the way we humans do, but any decent statistician will be able to tell you that the odds of you being devoured dramatically drops the moment you find yourself surrounded by countless brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

Therefore you will find that most fish species, although some of them may tend to become solitary in their adulthood, tend to form schools as juveniles. This is the period when they are at their most vulnerable and the statistics regarding attrition rates during this period are simply horrifying.

Thus, in order to have a remote chance of reaching maturity and being able to contribute further to the gene pool of a particular species, Mother Nature thought it prudent to instill the genetic code for this specific type of behavior in those fish species.

Turning our gaze now to fish habitat we will observe that, apart from the juvenile stages, schooling seems to be more prevalent among adult marine species compared to freshwater ones. The numbers in one school of some marine species, like herring and sardines, can be quite staggering and schools of a few billion fish are not uncommon amongst them.

One of nature’s true marvels is an annual migration of sardines from the West Coast of my native South Africa to the East Coast. They are a cold-water species and normally the East Coast waters are not to their liking at all. But every year environmental conditions create a narrow corridor of cold water hugging the East Coast which allows billions of these little fish to move eastwards on the way to their spawning grounds.

The shoals of predators, notably dolphins and sharks, not to mention predatory birds, following this nutrient bonanza make it the biggest annual gathering of predators in the world.

Mate and Breed

One of the true spectacles of nature surely must be the epic journeys of various Pacific salmon species like sockeye, chinook, or coho entering various river systems in the Pacific Northwest of America and Canada on their way to their spawning grounds. This seems to be a second reason why certain fish prefer to form schools.

You can rest assured that those are not the only fish species to congregate in massive schools in order to enter the mating and spawning cycle of their lives. However, it is only because nature dictates that they should leave the ocean and procreate in the shallow headwaters of big rivers that we are privileged to witness this very private and arduous activity.

Having said that, due to organizations like National Geographic and the BBC, nature lovers across the globe are now able to also observe similar behavior by some deep water marine species due to the spectacular fortitude and camera work of professional scuba divers and photographers.

Obtain Food

The third reason for schools of fish to form is to hunt for food. To employ sufficient numbers in executing an attack in order to outwit and outfox potential prey has been proven a very successful strategy across a range of predatory animals (humans included) since the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey species kicked off all those eons ago.

Scientists have studied the behavior of oceanic predatory species, like Atlantic Bluefin tuna, and ascertained from the evidence gathered that the tuna school forms a unique shape in order to enhance its hunting success.

It seems that the swimming pattern as well of the school formation gives rise to maximum visual observation of prey species. Furthermore, once a section of the school encounters prey, their feeding behavior gets quickly telegraphed to the rest of the school who can then join the feeding bonanza.

Personal Experience

Now, allow me to tell you a bit more about my fishing experiences with two predatory schooling species namely snoek (Thyrsites atun) and bluefish or tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix).

Hunting Snoek

The snoek is widely distributed in the colder waters in the Southern Hemisphere. It is found from Moçâmedes in Angola to Mossel Bay in South Africa , off Tristan da Cunha in the mid-southern Atlantic, off Western Australia, where it is called the barracoota, and off Chile and Argentina where it is called the sierra. Bluish-black on top with a silver belly, the snoek grows to over a meter in length.

My first experience with snoek fishing was during my student days when I befriended a guy whose parents owned a seaside cottage on the barren West Coast of South Africa. Every year vast schools of snoek make the annual migration from Angola to Cape Point and beyond and every year local fishermen board their little snoek boats (or “bakkies”) and do battle with this exciting and sumptuous quarry.

My friend’s father owned a small boat with two outboard engines and during the Easter holidays, we trekked to the West Coast to indulge in a bit of snoek fishing. The basic fishing method involves fishing with hand lines and either a hook baited with sardine or an artificial lure imitating squid.

Once on the ocean one could observe, by means of a fish finder, the massive shoals of predatory fish moving about and targeting large shoals of either sardines or squid. I vividly remember looking in absolute astonishment at the screen of such a device showing an image that resembled a subterranean reef when in fact it was a vast school of snoek blackening out the whole screen.

The tactic for snoek fishing is to drop the lure to the level of the schools of fish and entice them to start biting. Once they become interested, one can coax the school higher and higher through the water column until, sometimes, you could see them right under the boat, by that time in a veritable feeding frenzy and prepared to attack anything dropped in their close vicinity, sometimes even a bare hook!

Hunting Blue Fish

Moving over to bluefish the fishing scenario is a bit different. The bluefish is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as a tailor in Australia and elf or shad in South Africa. Other common names are blue, chopper, and anchoa. It is a popular game fish as well as a food fish.

I have no idea why the Aussies decided to call this fish “tailor” but I have a sneaky suspicion it has something to do with the armory of viciously sharp teeth they are equipped with which they apply in the same manner as a tailor’s scissors – snip…snip…snip. A fishing buddy of mine used to call them “piranhas of the sea”.

Bluefish attack baitfish in great numbers and their feeding frenzies are orgies of biting and slicing through their victim’s bodies leaving behind a trail of maimed, bleeding baitfish and writhing body parts which are gulped down on the subsequent waves of bluefish attacks.

Fishing for bluefish from my beloved Strand reefs in the Western Cape with a lightweight rod, a small spin caster reel, and some metallic spoons truly came close to the ultimate in fishing thrills. Hunting over shallow reefs in water sometimes less than a meter deep, bluefish angling can be one prolonged adrenaline trip.

Final Thoughts

After years of fishing and regularly witnessing schooling fish operating in their natural environment, I am still amazed by their seemingly choreographed movements without any indication of a designated leader, or leader group, dictating those actions.

Suffice to say that it is but one of a plethora of amazing things about nature in general and the private lives of fish in particular and the type of things that anglers are privileged to be a witness.

The more time you spend outdoors the bigger the chances you will be treated by one of nature’s truly splendid shows and, in my humble opinion, few human efforts can hold a candle to these.

Symphony of Fish Schools: Unveiling Underwater Harmonies

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In the mesmerizing depths of the ocean, a spectacle unfolds – the remarkable phenomenon of fish schooling. This collective behavior, exhibited by many species of fish, has captivated scientists and enthusiasts alike for centuries.

Understanding the intricacies of fish schooling not only sheds light on the wonders of the natural world but also offers valuable insights into the survival strategies of these aquatic creatures.

In this article, we delve into the concept of fish schooling, explore different types of schooling fish, examine the role of schooling in fish survival, discuss the impact of human activities on fish schools, and highlight conservation efforts aimed at protecting these fascinating marine communities.

Understanding the Concept of Schooling in Fish

fish swim other fish one fish fish forward

At its core, fish schooling refers to the collective behavior of a group of fish swimming together in a coordinated manner. The synchronized movements of schooling fish are a result of intricate communication and perception mechanisms within the group.

Scientists have studied the science behind fish schooling extensively , revealing fascinating insights into the factors driving this behavior.

The Science Behind Fish Schooling

Research has shown that fish employ a variety of sensory cues to coordinate their movements within the school. Visual cues, such as the alignment of body positions and the detection of movements in neighboring fish, play a crucial role in maintaining the cohesion of the group.

Additionally, fish also rely on hydrodynamic cues, sensing the water flow patterns created by their companions to stay in position and adjust their movements accordingly.

Furthermore, recent studies have highlighted the importance of auditory cues in fish schooling. It has been discovered that certain species of fish produce low-frequency sounds that serve as a form of communication within the school.

These sounds, often referred to as “fish calls,” help individuals in the group maintain their positions and synchronize their movements. The ability to communicate acoustically adds another layer of complexity to the already fascinating phenomenon of fish schooling.

The Benefits of Schooling for Fish

In the depths of the ocean, a mesmerizing phenomenon unfolds as schools of fish glide through the water with a remarkable display of schooling behavior. This coordinated movement, where fish swim together in unison, offers a multitude of advantages that contribute to their survival and thriving existence.

Strength in Numbers

When fish school, they become part of a larger entity that presents a daunting sight to potential predators. This collective display is not just for show; it serves as a powerful defense mechanism.

By swimming together, these fish create the illusion of a much larger organism, deterring predators such as sharks and granting the school a higher chance of escaping an attack unscathed.

Finding Food with Finesse

Schooling isn’t just about safety in numbers; it’s also a strategic approach to finding food. As a coordinated school moves through the water, their synchronized motion creates ripples and disturbances that stir up the aquatic environment.

This activity attracts potential prey, such as small fish and fish eggs, which larger fish like tuna and sailfish eagerly pursue. By working together, the school increases its chances of a successful hunt.

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Communication and Sensory Perception

fish swim pectoral fins fish's body same direction

The remarkable nature of schooling extends to the fish’s sensory systems. Along their bodies, fish possess a specialized organ called the lateral line, lined with hair cells that detect subtle water movements.

This keen sense allows individual fish to stay close to one another and respond to changes in the school’s movement direction. It’s like an underwater communication network, ensuring that the entire school moves as a single unit.

Safety in Motion

Schooling fish also showcase their agility through synchronized movements. They navigate obstacles and swiftly change direction, showcasing a remarkable sense of coordination. When one fish turns, the others follow suit, allowing the school to adapt to sudden changes and avoid hazards.

In the grand tapestry of marine life, schooling emerges as a testament to the intricacies of behavioral ecology . It exemplifies how diverse species work together, whether they belong to the same species or different ones, to increase their chances of survival.

So, the next time you witness a graceful fish school gliding through the water, remember that beneath the surface lies a world of coordination, communication, and survival strategies that continue to captivate researchers and enthusiasts alike.

Different Types of Schooling Fish

fish swim pectoral fins fish's body wild schools

While the concept of fish schooling is shared among various species, different groups exhibit unique behaviors and characteristics.

Let’s explore some prominent examples of schooling fish and learn about their intriguing adaptations.

Sardines: The Classic Fish School

In the ever-moving tapestry of the ocean, sardines emerge as quintessential performers of the art of fish schooling. These small, silvery fish are nature’s embodiment of unity in motion, dazzling observers with their synchronized ballet beneath the waves.

A sardine school is a living testament to the poetry of survival. As these aquatic dancers glide through the water, their collective motion serves as a defensive shield against lurking predators. The shimmering mass moves as one, creating confusion and making it challenging for any single predator to target an individual.

With a precision akin to a well-choreographed routine, each sardine follows the lead of its neighbors, responding to shifts in direction and speed with grace. This dance of motion is not just for show; it is a survival strategy that has been honed over generations.

Amid the fluid symphony, these fish communicate in ways that human eyes can barely fathom. Their lateral lines and keen senses allow them to stay connected in the fluid embrace of the school, exchanging silent messages that guide the collective journey.

The sardine school, with its exquisite unity and coordinated movement, is a testament to the intricate web of life that thrives beneath the surface. It speaks to the wonders of behavioral ecology and the astonishing beauty of nature’s designs. As we gaze upon the classic spectacle of sardines dancing in unison, we are reminded of the unseen forces that shape our world, even in the depths of the ocean.

The Mesmerizing Movements of Mackerel

fish swim pectoral fins fish aggregations

Mackerel, another fascinating schooling fish, exhibit rapid and agile movements that mesmerize onlookers. They form schools that can be highly dynamic, with individuals constantly changing positions and adjusting their orientations. The precise coordination of their movements in response to external cues allows mackerel to maintain a cohesive school while navigating through the ocean’s currents.

One of the key factors that contribute to the mesmerizing movements of mackerel schools is their ability to communicate with each other through visual signals. By rapidly changing their body positions and flashing their iridescent scales, mackerel can convey important information to their schoolmates, such as changes in direction or the presence of food sources.

Furthermore, mackerel have a unique adaptation known as a lateral line system, which enables them to detect subtle water movements and vibrations. This sensory system helps mackerel maintain precise spacing within the school, preventing collisions and ensuring efficient movement as they swim together.

The Unique Schooling Behavior of Tuna

Tuna, renowned for their speed and agility, also exhibit remarkable schooling behavior. They often form smaller schools with individuals swimming in tight formation, using their streamlined bodies to slice through the water. This collective behavior helps tuna optimize their hunting efficiency, especially when pursuing fast-moving prey species.

When hunting, tuna employ a strategy called “herding,” where they encircle their prey and drive them towards the surface. By working together, the tuna school can create a wall of fish that prevents the prey from escaping. This cooperative hunting behavior is a testament to the remarkable intelligence and social dynamics of these fish.

In addition to their physical adaptations for speed, tuna also possess excellent eyesight, allowing them to spot prey from a distance. This visual acuity, combined with their ability to communicate through body movements and changes in speed, enables tuna to coordinate their actions and execute successful hunting strategies as a cohesive unit.

It is truly fascinating to observe the different types of schooling fish and the intricate behaviors they display. From the synchronized waves of sardines to the mesmerizing movements of mackerel and the unique hunting strategies of tuna, these fish exemplify the remarkable adaptability and cooperative nature found in the vast underwater world.

The Role of Schooling in Fish Survival

In the intricate underwater world, the phenomenon of schooling among fish is a remarkable display of behavioral ecology. When fish swim together in coordinated groups known as schools of fish, they follow basic rules that allow them to move as one entity, enhancing their chances of survival against predators and finding food.

Schooling behavior is a fascinating adaptation observed across several species, where individual fish within a school swim in the same direction at the same speed. This synchronized movement isn’t just a random spectacle; it serves as a means of protection and energy conservation.

By staying close to one another, fish can better detect predators through their lateral line, a series of hair cells along their bodies that sense water currents. This unity also confuses potential predators, making it challenging for them to single out a target.

Imagine a scenario where a group of small fish encounters a predator, like a swift tuna or a cunning shark. As the threat approaches, the collective school exhibits an impressive display of unity.

The fish swimming at the outer edges move towards the center, creating a tighter formation that shields the inner fish from attack. This coordinated school movement is vital, especially when facing larger predators.

Beyond protection, schooling also offers advantages in finding food. When a school of fish swims together, they increase their chances of locating prey. As they move, they create disturbances in the water that stir up smaller aquatic animals, such as plankton and small fish eggs. This movement attracts larger fish, like sailfish, which capitalize on the opportunity to catch a meal.

It’s important to note that not all fish schools consist of the same species. Sometimes, different species come together in mixed aggregations. While each fish species maintains its identity within the group, the collective behavior follows the same rules of coordinated swimming. This dynamic showcases the intricate balance of nature and the diverse ways in which animals interact for mutual benefit.

The phenomenon of schooling in fish is a captivating example of nature’s ingenious strategies for survival. By adhering to the basic rules of coordinated movement, fish schools provide protection against predators, amplify their chances of finding food, and serve as a living testament to the delicate dance of life beneath the waves.

This intricate behavior, observed in the vibrant tapestry of aquatic existence, holds lessons for researchers and awe-inspiring spectacles for aquarium enthusiasts and nature lovers alike.

The Impact of Human Activities on Fish Schools

As human activities in the oceans continue to expand, fish schools face numerous threats that jeopardize their survival. Here, we explore two significant factors that negatively impact fish schooling populations.

Overfishing and its Effects on Schooling Fish

Overfishing , driven by the demand for seafood, poses a significant threat to schooling fish populations. Large-scale fishing operations target species like sardines and tuna, disrupting their natural schooling behavior. The removal of substantial numbers of fish from a school can destabilize the group, reducing its overall size and cohesion. This disruption can have severe consequences for the survival and reproductive success of schooling fish.

Pollution and its Impact on Fish Schools

Pollution, including oil spills and chemical contaminants, also poses a threat to fish schools. These pollutants can alter water quality , impairing the sensory cues that fish rely on for communication and coordination within the school. Additionally, exposure to pollutants can have direct physiological effects on fish, compromising their overall health and making them more vulnerable to predation and other stressors.

Conservation Efforts for Schooling Fish

Recognizing the importance of fish schools for the health of marine ecosystems, conservation efforts are being undertaken worldwide to protect and sustain these remarkable communities. Let’s explore two key initiatives aimed at preserving the vitality of fish schools.

Marine Protected Areas and Schooling Fish

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play a crucial role in safeguarding the habitats of schooling fish. By designating certain areas as protected zones, fishing activities are restricted or regulated, allowing fish populations to recover and fish schools to thrive undisturbed. MPAs provide a sanctuary where these incredible aggregations can continue their essential ecological functions.

Sustainable Fishing Practices

Adopting sustainable fishing practices is vital for the long-term survival of schooling fish populations. Implementing measures such as catch limits, size restrictions, and the use of selective fishing gear can help ensure that fishing activities target surplus individuals and avoid disrupting the cohesiveness and structure of fish schools. By striking a balance between harvesting and preservation, we can mitigate the impact of fishing on these extraordinary marine communities.

In conclusion, the captivating world of fish schooling offers a fascinating glimpse into the intricacies of collective behavior and survival strategies in the marine realm. By understanding the concept of fish schooling, exploring different types of schooling fish, recognizing the crucial role it plays in fish survival, and addressing the threats posed by human activities, we can work together to protect and conserve these captivating communities, ensuring their continued enchantment for generations to come.

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Why Do Fish School? One Reason Is to Help Each Other Through Turbulent Waters

A school of fish in the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of Thailand

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Schools of fish can resemble a single organism as they speed through the ocean in search of food or gather to defend their territory.

A new study has found that it is also easier for fish to swim through turbulent water if they are in a group compared with swimming alone.

“The ecological and evolutionary benefits of energy-saving in collective behaviors are rooted in the physical principles and physiological mechanisms underpinning animal locomotion,” the researchers wrote in the study. “We discovered that, when swimming at high speeds and high turbulence levels, fish schools reduced their total energy expenditure (TEE, both aerobic and anaerobic energy) by 63% to 79% compared to solitary fish.”

Many facets of animal behavior are linked with locomotion — from migration to feeding and reproduction — so many animals have adapted to improve their efficiency of movement.

The researchers proposed a “turbulent sheltering hypothesis,” which asserted that fish moving in schools are able to shield one another from rough water currents, making it easier to travel.

“Moving in turbulence is particularly challenging and energetically expensive for solitary fish. Solitary creek chub ( Semotilus atromaculatus ) swimming in turbulence reduced maximum sustained swimming speed (by 22%) because large turbulent eddies (approximately 76% of body length) disrupt the movement trajectories of fish,” the authors wrote. “Also, the cost of locomotion by solitary Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) can increase by approximately 150% in turbulence.”

To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted trials with giant danios ( Devario aeqipinnatus ). They observed the fish swimming in groups of eight or alone in smooth and turbulent water. High-speed cameras were used to observe the fishes’ movements as they swam, while a respirometer measured their energy expenditure and respiration rates.

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The experiments showed that fish traveling in schools gathered together more closely in turbulent water as compared with steady water. Solitary fish, however, had to more vigorously beat their tails to keep up the same speed in rougher currents.

“What is the function of schooling behavior in fishes ? We show that being in a school substantially reduces the energetic cost for fish swimming in a turbulent environment, compared to swimming alone, providing support for the hypothesis that schooling behavior protects individual fish from the increased energetic cost associated with swimming in turbulence,” the authors wrote in the study, as Phys.org reported.

The results indicated that efficiency of locomotion may be a major component behind the evolution of fish schools. This is useful information for understanding the fundamentals of hydrodynamics, fish ecology and could also be applied to habitat maintenance and design in harboring protected species or hindering invasive ones.

Studies like this one have broader implications as well.

“Moreover, studies on animal locomotion and turbulence have profound implications for a better understanding of the planetary ecosystem, e.g., turbulence generated by groups of fish can contribute to vertical mixing of the ocean,” the authors wrote.

The researchers noted that the study could also inform future research into the group movement energy dynamics of other aquatic or aerial animals.

The study, “Collective movement of schooling fish reduces the costs of locomotion in turbulent conditions,” was published in the journal PLOS Biology .

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3 Reasons Why Fish Swim in Schools

Under Los Cabos crystal clear-waters habit numerous amazing fish species. From small to large, there is a diverse range that thrives in the Gulf. Some of the fish that can be found include Marlin, Snapper, Grouper, Mahi, Sailfish, Tuna, Tarpon, Snook and Roosterfish.

Like many animals, fish travel together in groups, but that’s not just because they love company. The biology of fish schools is not easy to understand.

Schooling has been widely studied and numerous theories have evolved trying to explain why fish get together.

Let´s know the difference between school, shoal and aggregation.

Aggregation is a loose and unorganized gathering of fish that often containing different species. They aggregate because they are all feeding on the same nourishment or swimming on the same section of the reef looking for protection.

A single species of fish in aggregation is called a Shoal . There, the fish are all pointed in different directions, milling around, doing their own thing.

When a shoal is polarized means that they are pointing in the same direction and working together. It is known as a School.

Fish gather in schools for several reasons:

Schools are conformed by thousands or hundreds of nearly identical fish who confuse predators and make it difficult to single out and attack one individual fish. An extreme but common response of schools attacked by predators is the formation of a circle. This behavior is distinctive and it is very common among several species and ecosystems.

2.- Feeding

It makes it easier for some fish to find food. With many more eyes on the lookout, a school can find potential prey more effectively. The school isn’t controlled by any single fish. It simply emerges if there are enough members following the right set of rules.

3.- Breeding

Schooling brings the sexes together and increases the odds of successful reproduction. Many fish species gather in schools when they are in need to mate but also could be the other side. Some schools could be conformed only by females. All together defending themselves from male harassment.

Is there any leader in charge? Truly, no one is and everyone is. Every single fish just follows two basic rules: Stay close, but not too close, and keep swimming!

If many fishes join the gang, something fantastic will happen: the single movement will turn into a stunning new entity which has its own behavior.

Book your trip and come to explore Los Cabos aquatic world. Undoubtedly you will find a remarkable diversity of memorable undersea experiences available. Plenty of tour operators provides scuba diving and snorkeling with the highest client satisfaction.

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Study reveals unique survival strategies adopted by fish in the world's warmest waters

by New York University

NYU Abu Dhabi researchers identify unique survival strategies adopted by fish in the world's warmest waters

A team of researchers have identified unexpected ways coral reef fish living in the warmest waters on Earth, in the Arabian Gulf, have adapted to survive extreme temperatures.

Led by Co-Principal Investigator at The Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi John Burt and Associate Research Professor, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Jacob Johansen, the team discovered adaptations in both metabolism and swimming abilities that help fish survive the conditions of the Arabian Gulf.

Surprisingly, these fish did not follow leading theoretical predictions, which expected that the maximum size of fishes should be reduced due to limitations in metabolic oxygen-supply. Instead, these fishes demonstrated a capacity to maintain efficient oxygen supply to fuel performance even at elevated temperatures.

The warming of our oceans is anticipated to drastically affect marine life and the fishing industry, potentially upsetting entire ecosystems and economic structures reliant on these habitats. Current scientific models predict that by 2050, coral reef fishes could shrink by 14–39% in size due to increasing temperatures under climate change .

The study's findings challenge the prevailing view that oxygen supply limitations in larger fishes are the main reason for smaller fish in warmer waters—the so-called "shrinking of fishes phenomenon." The species observed did not follow this pattern, suggesting that other factors are also at play.

The study proposes a new theory that the decrease in fish sizes and their survival in increasingly warm oceans might be more closely related to an imbalance between how much energy fish species can obtain and how much they need to sustain themselves.

In the paper titled " Impacts of ocean warming on fish size reductions on the world's hottest coral reefs " published in the journal Nature Communications , the researchers compared two species of fishes, Lutjanus ehrenbergii and Scolopsis ghanam, surviving under the elevated temperatures within the Arabian Gulf to those of similar age living in the cooler, more benign conditions in the nearby Gulf of Oman.

Specifically, the researchers set out to determine what qualities reef fishes in the Arabian Gulf have that enable them to survive there, where typical summer water temperatures are comparable to worst-case ocean warming projections for many tropical coral reefs globally by 2100.

"The hottest coral reefs in the world are an ideal natural laboratory to explore the future impact of rising water temperatures on fishes. Our findings indicate that some fish species are more resilient to climate change than previously understood and help explain why smaller individuals are evolutionarily favored at high temperatures," said Burt.

"This has significant implications for our understanding of the future of marine biodiversity in a continuously warming world."

Journal information: Nature Communications

Provided by New York University

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Do fish need to drink water? How freshwater vs. saltwater fish process water.

Water is a big part of our lives. Whether we're swimming in it, washing ourselves off with it or drinking it, human beings need water to survive. The average U.S. adult drinks about 44 ounces of water per day , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The human body itself is about 60% water .

Animals and plants, like humans, need water to survive. But what about the 3.5 trillion fish swimming around in the ocean, for whom water is their home? Do fish need to drink water like we do?

Do fish drink water?

Fish do consume water and need it to survive just as humans do. But fish don’t necessarily drink it as a human drinks a glass of water.

Fish consume water through a process known as osmosis. Merriam-Webster defines osmosis as “movement of a solvent (such as water) through a semipermeable membrane (as of a living cell) into a solution of higher solute concentration that tends to equalize the concentrations of solute on the two sides of the membrane.”

In simpler terms, osmosis is the process of something passing through a thin sheet to alter and balance a substance in something. Fish absorb water through gills through the process of osmosis, essentially being their equivalent to drinking water.

Do all fish drink water through osmosis?

Not all fish drink water solely through osmosis. According to McGill University, saltwater fish consume water not only through osmosis, but also purposefully drink water to have some go through the digestive tract. Water does end up going into freshwater fish’s mouths, but instead of swallowing it, the water is filtered out through the gills.

Why don’t freshwater fish swallow freshwater?

Unlike saltwater fish, freshwater fish do not need to consume water through their mouth to survive.

McGill University explains freshwater fish’s blood and bodily fluids are saltier than the water they swim in . “ishes’ bodies, just like ours, need a certain concentration of salt to function best," says McGill University. Swallowing freshwater could throw off the balance in a freshwater fish’s body.

Why do saltwater fish swallow saltwater?

Saltwater fish swallow water for the opposite reason freshwater expel it. McGill states saltwater fish need to swallow saltwater in order to get enough in their system .

Do fish sleep like humans?: What it means under the sea or in the aquarium

Just Curious for more? We've got you covered.

USA TODAY is exploring the questions you and others ask every day. From "How many hearts does an octopus have?" to "How long do orcas live?" to "What is my state fish?" – we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. Head to our Just Curious section to see what else we can answer for you.

UK election latest: New cabinet in place - but 'shock' as PM Keir Starmer snubs senior figure

Sir Keir Starmer has named the bulk of his cabinet, with Rachel Reeves the first female chancellor. Rishi Sunak said "sorry" to voters as he resigned as Tory leader. His party endured a torrid election night, with the Lib Dems (71 seats) and Reform (five seats) making big strides.

Saturday 6 July 2024 00:15, UK

General Election 2024

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Need to know

Sir Keir Starmer pledges to 'end era of noisy performance' after winning landslide | Work to bring change starts 'immediately'
New PM names cabinet | Emily Thornberry snubbed
Sam Coates: One of the most orderly and stable entrances to power
Tory wipeout: Sunak says sorry as he resigns as Tory leader | Liz Truss shock loss | 12 cabinet ministers booted out
Nigel Farage one of five Reform MPs - but speech sabotaged by protesters
Record 71 seats for Lib Dems | SNP collapse
Sam Coates analysis : A loveless landslide
Jon Craig: Who will become next Tory leader?
Labour vote share down in areas with large Muslim populations
How Reform vote compares to UKIP in 2015 - is it really a big gain?
How night unfolded in eight videos - from exit poll to defeated Rees-Mogg's film quote
Ed Conway : The new political geography
Results in every constituency

Live reporting by Samuel Osborne, Mark Wyatt, Emily Mee and Bhvishya Patel

If you didn't manage to stay up, we've collected the key moments from a dramatic election night in the video below.

They include the first result to be declared, the first Tory to lose to a Labour candidate, and the cabinet ministers who lost their seats.

Plus Rishi Sunak's admission of defeat, and Sir Keir Starmer's victory speech.

Watch it all unfold below...

Politics is showbusiness for ugly people - according to the crude and perhaps unfair saying by American political consultant Paul Begala.

However, occasionally famous faces from the world of entertainment and sport do cross over into the ruthless, back-stabbing world of politics.

Sometimes they are hugely successful - just look at the case of the late US actor Ronald Reagan or former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, who both ended up running their respective countries.

In the UK, former actress Glenda Jackson, ex-GMTV presenter Esther McVey and Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe are among those who have switched careers in the spotlight to become MPs.

However, this time around, the story was mostly one of failure for the celebrities - and sort-of celebrities - who ran in the 2024 UK general election...

Read more from our reporter Daniel Binns below...

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has held a call with the UK's new Foreign Secretary David Lammy this evening.

During the call, the US official congratulated Mr Lammy for his appointment, spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Mr Miller said: "The pair emphasised the enduring and essential importance of the US-UK special relationship in addressing the most pressing global challenges, including reaching an immediate and enduring ceasefire in Gaza, and supporting Ukraine against Russia's brutal aggression.

"The secretary noted that he looks forward to welcoming the foreign secretary to the NATO summit in Washington next week."

Labour MP Jess Phillips is back with Beth and Ruth to un-pick the election results.

On this episode they discuss how Jess was heckled when she narrowly held her seat of Birmingham Yardley.

They also look at the wider Labour results and talk about Rishi Sunak’s resignation speech, as well as discussing why Reform and the Liberal Democrats took seats from the two main parties.

Email Beth, Ruth, and Jess at [email protected] , post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.

Sir Keir Starmer and Irish premier Simon Harris have committed to reset and strengthen Anglo-Irish relations "with urgency and ambition".

The taoiseach "warmly congratulated" Sir Keir on his appointment as prime minister and said he looked forward to a "close and constructive" working relationship.

He also accepted an invite to visit Downing Street on 17 July.

"The taoiseach and the prime minister spoke of their shared determination to reset and strengthen the bilateral relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom and to set about that task with urgency and ambition," a statement said.

"They discussed Northern Ireland, welcoming the restoration of the institutions, including the full operation of North-South and East-West Good Friday Agreement institutions, as well as legacy issues."

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly also spoke to Sir Keir by phone and congratulated him.

Some of Sir Keir Starmer's appointments have come as a surprise this evening - not least Timpson's chief executive James Timpson becoming minister for prisons parole and probation.

The business leader is also chair of the Prison Reform Trust and has a history of employing ex-convicts within his company.

The prime minister also appointed Sir Patrick Vallance - a household name during the COVID pandemic - as minister for science, and human rights lawyer Richard Hermer KC as attorney general.

In effect, he appears to be choosing experts in their fields - but how could they be appointed without being elected as MPs?

Essentially, the prime minister has the power to appoint anyone as a minister if they first make them a peer in the House of Lords.

A similar tactic was used by Rishi Sunak to bring back former prime minister David Cameron to fill the role of foreign secretary.

Sir Keir Starmer's declaration a few days ago that he would clock off at 6pm on Fridays to spend time with his family was derided by Conservatives.

But Labour peer and former home secretary Lord Blunkett - someone who himself has experience in government - tells Sky News that Gordon Brown used to work 18-hour days, seven days a week, and it "didn't work".

'Let go of the reins'

He says this caused a "massive log jam in decision-making", and that Sir Keir could quickly face problems with "getting momentum and energy back into government".

Lord Blunkett says it's time for Sir Keir to "let go of the reins a bit", appoint a cabinet and "let them get on with it".

He argues that without this decentralisation, the government could "ground to a standstill".

The Labour leader could also face difficulties with the number of new MPs he has, Lord Blunkett says.

It will be a "substantial challenge" and they must feel "they've got a part to play", he says.

If you want to find out who your MP is now, you can search for your constituency in our article below.

Only one constituency - Inverness, Skye and West Ross - is yet to declare.

Number 10 has released pictures of Sir Keir Starmer with his newly appointed cabinet.

Boris Johnson has described Labour's landslide victory as an "atomic bomb that has detonated over the British political landscape".

In a piece for the Daily Mail , the former prime minister said "our worst fears have been realised" and "matters have developed".

He said the Tories had allowed Sir Keir Starmer - "a glottaly challenged north London lawyer" to lead Labour to one of their biggest victories ever and "too many good former colleagues have lost their seats in a cull that has been in many ways unjust".

"It has been miserable to watch, and it has taken me some time to rouse myself from the sofa and get to the keyboard to compose my thoughts," he said.

Mr Johnson said his prayers were now with the 121 "Tory survivors" who were the "bedraggled remnants of the explosion" and whose role was not to "hold this Starmergeddon majority to account".

On Nigel Farage, he said the "cheroot-puffing Pied Piper of Clacton" had "played a significant part" in the "destruction of the Tory government".

He went on to say "Labour's majority is built on sand" and if the past five years proved anything it was that "the electorate can flip over a seemingly impregnable position, as a child demolishes a fortress of Lego".

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Unlikely Wild Animals Are Being Smuggled Into U.S. Ports: Corals

With the sea creatures making up a growing share of illegal animal seizures around the world, U.S. officials are working to overcome struggles to safely house them.

By Jason Bittel

You might imagine that when federal wildlife inspectors search for illegally trafficked animal goods, they’d be on the lookout for elephant ivory or tiger skins. But other creatures are frequently being seized at American ports of entry, creatures you perhaps would not realize are animals: corals.

Corals are not plants: They are tiny invertebrates that live in vast colonies, forming the foundation of the world’s tropical reefs. Marine life traffickers hammer and chisel them off reefs in places like Indonesia, Fiji, Tonga, Australia or the Caribbean, then pack them into small baggies of seawater so they can be boxed up by the hundreds and shipped around the world. While most coral is shipped into the United States legally, individuals and wholesalers, growing in number, are being intercepted with coral species or quantities that are restricted or banned from trade, often hidden inside shipments containing legal species.

All over the world, corals, which populate reefs, filter water and provide habitats for numerous fish and other ocean life, are in danger. They face disease outbreaks, bleaching events , ocean acidification and warming seas. Their jeopardy is exacerbated by sediment and nutrient runoff from human activities on land, as well as by cyanide fishing and even trampling by tourists.

Then, where coral remains healthy and unmolested, it may be targeted by traffickers, who sell the animals to aquarium enthusiasts in wealthy countries who may or may not know that the coral has been acquired illegally. Corals were the third-most confiscated wildlife group globally between 1999 and 2018, making up 14.6 percent of all seizures, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The United States is a huge part of that trade.

“The U.S. is the primary market for marine corals,” said Ashley Skeen, a senior wildlife inspector for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We’re number one.”

According to NOAA Fisheries , more than 25 coral species are considered endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and are thus protected by federal law. Internationally, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora restricts the trade of around 1,900 coral species, including black corals, red and pink corals, blue corals, stony corals, organ pipe corals and fire corals.

Worse still, by the time these animals reach American shores, they are often sick.

“When corals are stressed, a lot of times what they’ll do is create a heavier mucus layer for protection,” said Kim Stone, director of fish and invertebrates at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, which has helped federal wildlife authorities care for seized coral.

This otherwise protective measure fouls the coral’s small reserve of water, altering the pH and oxygen levels, which in turn triggers more stress in the animal, creating what Ms. Stone calls a “downward spiral.” It is not uncommon for a shipment of coral to contain animals that have already died.

“If the water’s not clear, you need to move quickly,” Ms. Stone said.

As wildlife officials work to reduce the demand for illegal coral and choke off supply, they face major dilemmas about what to do with the imperiled animals they seize.

Confiscated animals must be housed and looked after, both for their own welfare, but also because they become evidence once they are taken into custody. This means that they must be cared for either until charges against a defendant in a trafficking case are dismissed, or they are permanently seized by the authorities. And even then, returning corals to the wild is usually not possible, because it’s not clear where the animals originated, or the countries from which they were extracted won’t take them back.

To address this problem, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has worked with zoos and aquariums near airports and ports to house corals on a case-by-case basis. But the closest facilities have usually taken the brunt of this traffic and become inundated.

In 2023, the service began a pilot program in Southern California with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, aiming to solve this problem by creating the equivalent of a Bat-Signal for seized wildlife. It’s called the Wildlife Confiscations Network , and it has been so successful that officials are now moving to replicate the effort in the Southeast.

“We’ve set up a network of trusted, reputable facilities,” said Sara Walker, senior adviser on wildlife trafficking for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “And law enforcement can call one person, and that person will do all the legwork, calling around, finding out who’s got the space.”

This is critical when a shipment comes in with large quantities of animals that may require triage and housing provided across various organizations, and all of it quickly.

In fact, some corals cannot even be identified while they’re in crisis, because the individual animals, or polyps, won’t open up. To coax them out, Ms. Stone said it’s critical to get them acclimated to clean flowing water and eventually suitable food. Light levels may also need to be adjusted, depending on the species and condition.

As of now, the Wildlife Confiscations Network includes 26 facilities. Many of them are concentrated in Southern California, such as the San Diego Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Springs.

Each institution has been vetted and trained on how to perform triage on corals and other confiscated animals, and also how to do so in a way that does not jeopardize an open investigation. For instance, confiscated animals must be rigorously documented and kept from view and not discussed with the public or news media until the investigation has come to a close.

Since its inception in August 2023, the Wildlife Confiscations Network has already processed about 2,800 animals as part of more than 70 legal cases.

“A large number of those are aquatic invertebrates,” Ms. Walker said. “Corals and clams, those come in by the hundreds.”

In April, the officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums met with the Georgia Aquarium and more than a dozen other animal care facilities to discuss expanding the network into the Southeast. The goal is to more evenly address the influx of trafficked invertebrates to the region.

Officials say the Georgia Aquarium is a natural partner in the effort. With a heavy volume of seizures at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Georgia Aquarium has taken around 1,000 confiscated animals since 2010. In addition to large amounts of coral, other trafficking victims have included Motoro rays, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles and seahorses. But nearly half of the animals have been corals, Ms. Stone said.

While the final details still require ironing out, expanding the network to the Southeast could provide relief for government agencies and animal care institutions alike. Further expansion may include institutions in Florida and Texas.

Corals are better left in the wild, experts say, but there are silver linings after illegally trafficked specimens are confiscated and properly cared for by experts. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a confiscated coral if you’ve visited some aquariums.

Walk past the Indo-Pacific Barrier Reef exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium, for instance, and you can view a Turbinaria coral that was confiscated in 2005, shortly after Ms. Stone joined the aquarium.

It took years for the Turbinaria to recover, but now the colony has grown to more than 2.5 feet in size under her care and taken on a shape like a giant eye.

Explore the Animal Kingdom

A selection of quirky, intriguing and surprising discoveries about animal life..

Flatfish offer an evolutionary puzzle: How did the flounder’s one eye gradually migrate to the other side?

By studying bees and their honey near decomposing human tissue, researchers at George Mason University hope to give crime scene investigators a new tool for finding the hidden dead.

There has long been anecdotal evidence of leeches taking to the air, but videos recorded in Madagascar at last prove the animals’ acrobatics.

Researchers say the nearly mile-long swim undertaken by two lions was the longest by big cats ever recorded. Here’s why the pair swam .

While trying to save large amphibians native to Japan, herpetologists in the country unexpectedly found a way to potentially save an even bigger species in China.

IMAGES

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COMMENTS

Why Do Fish School Together?
First and foremost, schools protect fish from their enemies. It's the same rule our mothers taught us as youngsters, always stay in a group because there is safety in numbers. Predators find it far easier to chase down and gobble up a fish swimming all alone rather than trying to cut out a single fish from a huge group. The same holds in reverse.
Shoaling and schooling
Underwater video loop of a school of herrings migrating at high speed to their spawning grounds in the Baltic Sea. An aggregation of fish is the general term for any collection of fish that have gathered together in some locality. Fish aggregations can be structured or unstructured. An unstructured aggregation might be a group of mixed species and sizes that have gathered randomly near some ...
Fish swimming together fare better in turbulent waters
Schooling fish including zebrafish, rainbowfish, and opahs/moonfish like to stick together in the big blue.Scientists believe that traveling in schools has numerous evolutionary benefits, but it ...
Why do fish swim in schools? New study reveals unexpected benefits
The benefits of collective swimming. The study, published in PLOS Biology, discovered that fish swimming in schools waste far less energy than fish swimming alone. "We discovered that, when swimming at high speeds and high turbulence levels, fish schools reduced their total energy expenditure (TEE, both aerobic and anaerobic energy) by 63 ...
What the Fish Saw: How Swimming Fish Maintain Orderly Schools
The researchers taught a few fish to swim toward a green light to find food and then placed those fish in a larger school. When the light went on, the trained fish broke toward it, triggering a ...
How Do Fish Swim In Schools? Scientists Say It's In Their Genes
Fish evolved to swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators, improve their foraging and swim more efficiently. Unlike shoaling, in which fish merely swim loosely together, schooling requires coordinated body positions and synchronized movement. Fish in schools need to sense their environment with high accuracy, maintain ...
Understanding Fish Schools and Behaviors for Conservation
Understanding fish schooling behaviors is important to developing a deeper understanding of how fish communicate as a whole. Furthermore, there is much to be learned from this behavior which appears unique to schooling populations. For example, in schools, fish will maintain a certain amount of distance but still be close enough that they are ...
Why Fish Swim in Schools
The Buddy System Makes Life Easier. When a fish goes solo, he faces currents and resistance all alone. And when you have to fight resistance on your own, you have to work hard just to get where you're going. In schools, however, a lazy fish can draft off the fish around him, significantly reducing resistance. By reducing the energy they need to ...
How Do Fish Schools Work?
Schools are highly structured with coordinated movements and a common direction. A group of fish can switch from shoaling to schooling and back again. Schooling seems to have evolved as a defense against predators and in some cases as a way to increase feeding efficiency. Every fish in a school must execute perfectly to get the best results.
Swimming in schools lets fish save lots of energy
Researchers still lack solid evidence about why swimming in schools helps fish save energy. They do have a few ideas, however. Flapping their tails from side to side against the water moves a fish forward. This causes the water behind the animal to spin. In one study, Fish observed three fish swimming together.
Why Fish Don't Need to Be "Schooled" in Swimming
Stickleback to school. Most fish exhibit schooling during some phase of their life cycle, research has shown. Fish evolved to swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators, improve ...
Swarming Up A Storm: Why Animals School And Flock : NPR
A school of Blue Tang fish swimming together off the Caribbean island of Bonaire. It has long been assumed that the schooling behavior of fish evolved in part to protect animals from being ...
Why do fish swim in schools?
Fish don't just swim in schools because they love the company…. It'd be easy to assume that fish swim in schools because they simply enjoy spending time together, just like us humans. Although it's a nice thought, and we're sure they do appreciate the company, science says otherwise. Studies suggest that schooling isn't a learned ...
Do Fish Swim In Schools In the Summer?
Some fish — often larger species — choose to live solitary lives. If fish do decide to school, exactly how many fish does it take to be a school? While there's no magic number that equals a school, there would usually need to be at least five or more fish to be considered a school. In the wild, though, fish schools can be huge.
Genetics of how and why fish swim in schools: Research sheds light on
How and why fish swim in schools has long fascinated biologists looking for clues to understand the complexities of social behavior. A new study may help provide some insight.
Why do fish school?
Fish hanging out together in an organized group is known as shoaling - to graduate to a school, the group needs to make coordinated movements together. A school usually consists of only one type of fish as well. For what seems to be a highly complicated dance number, it's striking to know that there's no leader.
What's the difference between a shoal, a school and a pod?
What's the difference between a shoal, a school and a pod? - BBC Science Focus Magazine.
How And Why Do Fish Swim In Schools?
The bluefish is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as a tailor in Australia and elf or shad in South Africa. Other common names are blue, chopper, and anchoa. It is a popular game fish as well as a food fish.
Animal Jam
Dr. Tierney Thys explains why it's important to swim in a school of fish instead of swimming on their own. Find more videos like this one and so much more a...
Symphony of Fish Schools: Unveiling Underwater Harmonies
Understanding the Concept of Schooling in Fish. At its core, fish schooling refers to the collective behavior of a group of fish swimming together in a coordinated manner. The synchronized movements of schooling fish are a result of intricate communication and perception mechanisms within the group. Scientists have studied the science behind ...
Why Do Fish School? One Reason Is to Help Each Other Through ...
Schools of fish can resemble a single organism as they speed through the ocean in search of food or gather to defend their territory. A new study has found that it is also easier for fish to swim through turbulent water if they are in a group compared with swimming alone. "The ecological and evolutionary benefits of energy-saving in ...
Schooling Fish from a New, Multimodal Sensory Perspective
The acoustic hypothesis suggests that schooling can result in several benefits. (1) The acoustic pattern (AP) (pressure waves and other water movements) produced by swimming are likely to serve as signals within fish shoals, communicating useful spatial and temporal information between school members, enabling synchronized locomotion and influencing join, stay or leave decisions and shoal ...
Why Do Schools of Fish Seem to Know One Hand From the Other?
A. Schools of fish swim in either direction, and scientists have not determined what factors determine it. The synchronized behavior of schools of fish is a source of fascination to researchers ...
3 Reasons Why Fish Swim in Schools
Fish gather in schools for several reasons: 1.-. Safety. Schools are conformed by thousands or hundreds of nearly identical fish who confuse predators and make it difficult to single out and attack one individual fish. An extreme but common response of schools attacked by predators is the formation of a circle.
Study reveals unique survival strategies adopted by fish in the world's
"The hottest coral reefs in the world are an ideal natural laboratory to explore the future impact of rising water temperatures on fishes. Our findings indicate that some fish species are more ...
Do fish drink water? Freshwater vs. saltwater fish process.
Fish do consume water and need it to survive just as humans do. But fish don't necessarily drink it as a human drinks a glass of water. Fish consume water through a process known as osmosis.
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Sir Keir Starmer will address the nation from Downing Street shortly after visiting the King. Rishi Sunak said "sorry" to voters as he resigned as Tory leader. His party endured a torrid night as ...
Unlikely Wild Animals Are Being Smuggled Into U.S. Ports: Corals
According to NOAA Fisheries, more than 25 coral species are considered endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and are thus protected by federal law.Internationally, the ...