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In September 1993, "The Economist" magazine reported that Japan's meteorology agency had recently completed a seven-year study to ascertain the validity of the Japanese legend that earthquakes are caused by catfish wiggling their tails. After trying to match catfish tail-wagging with a number of small earthquakes, the agency abandoned the study, refusing to confirm or criticize the legend.
Why was the bluefish blue? Because the blowfish wouldn't.
Prevention Of Cruelty To Piranhas: A video dealer in England advertised a large discount on his systems to anyone who was brave (?) enough to snatch a coin from an aquarium filled with hungry piranha. The English equivalent of the SPCA in the United States got into the act and demanded the dealer be sure the customer's hands were cleaned so as to prevent food poisoning in any piranha that might bite a dirty hand.
This was published in The South Texas Fisherman, sometime 1972. Talking To Fish by Bill Kennedy A character in one of Shakespeare's plays, boasting of his accomplishments said, "I can call up monsters from the vasty deep." Any fisherman could have given the answer, "So can I and so can any man, but will they come?" Men and women have been calling to fish, pleading with them, and swearing at them without response since the beginning of time. A federally supported research project may change that situation. Working with the whale family (porpoise or dolphin), scientists in Florida have set out to translate fish language. They are not far along yet but have made some headway. Various clicks and whistles have been recorded that indicate, at least in the whale family, one fish has a way to communicating what is on his mind to another fish. If the research continues as planned, it should be only a matter of time until man will be able to reporoduce fish noises and communicate what is on his mind to bass, perch, and catfish. All right-minded fishermen agree that fish-talk research projects should be cancelled and the scientists in it forced to seek other employment. The reasoning behind this point of view is simple and sound. If the research continues to its logical conclusion, fishing will cease to be the pleasant and relaxing sport that it now is. Fishing will become a business of bellowing speeches in fish language designed to convince fish that they would be better off on the bank or in the boat than they are in the water. In such circumstances, any fool knows who the men that will catch all the fish will be. They will be politicians!
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