Thousands Of Fish Burst From Plane And Plummet Into Lake In Mesmerizing Video

The spellbinding fish drop is a pretty common practice, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
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Wildlife officials in Utah restocked lakes across the state last week by giving some fish a free skydiving session.

A viral video released by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources this month shows one of the agency’s planes flying over a lake by Utah’s Boulder Mountain on July 6. Suddenly, the plane’s hatch opens and out tumble thousands of young brook trout and tiger trout (called fingerlings, per The New York Times) in a torrent of water. The creatures twist and turn and flop about until they disappear under the lake’s surface. The airplane holds hundreds of pounds of water and can drop 35,000 fish in a single flight without reloading, according to a Facebook post by the agency.

Surprisingly, there’s nothing fishy about the practice. Aerial fish stocking has been used in the Beehive State since the mid-1950s, according to the agency’s post. It is also used to repopulate species, because fish don’t reproduce naturally in many of Utah’s lakes. The “planes are just the most efficient way to provide fish for anglers,” Chris Penne, a regional aquatic manager for the wildlife division, told the Times.

The agency stocked around 200 high-elevation lakes across the state using this extreme and “effective” fish drop method, per the Facebook post. It is used because many of the lakes in the state are not accessible by vehicle.

The post also noted that very few fish were likely harmed in the filming of its video, and that “post-stocking netting surveys show that survival of aerial-stocked fish is incredibly high.” The agency told the Times that the fingerlings have a 95% survival rate, if you want to get specific.

“The fish are between 1-3 inches long, so they flutter down slowly to the water,” the agency said on Facebook.

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