Much Like Hipsters, Scallops Can Be Lured to Their Death by Disco Lights – Futurism

Posted: May 23, 2022 at 11:48 am

"Its like a scallop disco."Clam-iroquai

Just like your average EDM fan, scallops can, as it turns out, be captured more easily when you turn on the pretty lights for them.

AsThe Guardian reports, a group of fishing consultants (yes, thats a thing) have devised a devious plot to lure unsuspecting scallops by flashing disco lights inside trap baskets, which apparently attracts them.

This technique was actually created by the British Fishtek Marine consultancy to lure in crabs, but to their surprise, it was scallops which, apparently, each have more than 200 eyes that were more into the pretty lights.

Its like a scallop disco illuminate the trap and they come in, Dr. Rob Enver, Fishteks chief marine scientist, told The Guardian. Its astonishing that no one else has discovered this before. Its quite an exciting find.

While its kind of heartbreaking to watch these cute shelled creatures jump to their doom after seeing the same kinds of lights we enjoy in bars and on dancefloors, this technique can apparently help the global over-fishing problem as well.

Most of the scallops caught for human consumption today are captured via dredging, a harmful means of fishing that harms marine life when done at large scale. The more environmentally conscious alternative, the report notes, is done by scuba divers handpicking scallops, but this is obviously much more expensive and time-consuming.

With this new technique, however, fishers can catch scallops much more easily, and in a way much less likely to harm the marine floor, Fishtek toldThe Guardian.

The experiment has made waves in the academic and ecological communities as well, with a new paper published in theJournal of Fisheries Research this week lauding the low-impact potted light scallop-fishing method.

This could be huge for scallop fishing and maybe well give them some music to jam to before theyre taken to their dooms, too.

READ MORE:Accidental discovery that scallops love disco lights leads to new fishing technique [The Guardian]

More on fishing ethics:Critics Horrified by Worlds First Octopus Farm

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Much Like Hipsters, Scallops Can Be Lured to Their Death by Disco Lights - Futurism

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