BOSTON — Call them Pavlov’s fish: Scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.
If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then — upon hearing the signal — swim into an underwater cage to be harvested.
What’s next, teaching them to coat themselves in batter and hop inside a fryer?
“It sounds crazy, but it’s real,” said Simon Miner, a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, which received a $270,000 grant for the project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Miner said the specially trained fish could someday be used to bolster the depleted black sea bass stock. Farmed fish might become better acclimated to the wild if they can be called back for food every few days.
The bigger goal is to defray the costs of fish farming, an increasingly important source of the world’s seafood. If fish can be trained to return to the farmer after feeding in the open ocean for several days, farms could save money on feed and reduce the amount of fish waste released in concentrated areas.
The key question for fish farmers: How many fish will actually return, and how many will be lost to predators or simply swim away?
Randy MacMillan, president of the National Aquaculture Association, said fish farmers won’t be easily convinced to adopt open- ocean ranching.
“The commercial side is going to be skeptical,” said MacMillan, who works on a trout farm in Idaho.
