When the mountain lakes in Utah need a little bit of help replenishing the amount of fish in the water, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has an interesting remedy: dropping them out of a flying plane.
The Utah DWR shared a video recently of what they call “extreme fish stocking,” with footage of the fish being shot out of the back of the plane. While it looks like it could be dangerous for the fish, officials wrote on Twitter that the maneuver allows “more than 95% of them to survive the fall,” since the fish are “1–3 inches long.”
When someone asked how dropping the fish from a plane wouldn’t kill the fish, the DWR responded: “Because of their small size (reduced mass), the process of dropping doesn’t hurt the fish. Think of it as a high diver diving into a deep pool of water.”
Here’s a look at the video:
Fun fact: We stock many of Utah’s high-mountain lakes from the air. The fish are tiny — anywhere from 1–3 inches long — which allows more than 95% of them to survive the fall. #Utah #TroutTuesday pic.twitter.com/kotDe91Zzw
— Utah DWR (@UtahDWR) August 21, 2018
