Scientists Discover Fish Can Identify Specific Divers

A group of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Germany has been studying whether marine fish can recognize human faces. According to their data, marine fish can detect differences between humans. And therefore, different species of fish can recognize specific divers.

 

“No one has ever really tried to find out if marine fish have the ability to recognize human faces or if they actually recognize people,” said scientist Melan Tomasek. “We learned after entering the underwater world that these fish can recognize us. Marine fish can recognize people individually. They follow specific divers. The fish know who will reward them.” A study on this has been published in the journal Biology Letters.

Scientists conducted research eight meters underwater in the Mediterranean Sea. There, marine fish are quite accustomed to the presence of scientists. During the research, they first tried to find out whether the fish followed a diver. It was seen that the fish gradually recognized the divers.

The study was conducted on two species of fish out of dozens of fish species around the scientists, of which the ‘bream’ species responded the most, the scientists said. In this regard, scientist Katinka Soler said, ‘As soon as I went down to the sea, the fish started swimming towards me. I named one fish with two shiny silver scales on its back ‘Bernie’ and another fish ‘Alfie’, whose tail fin was a little torn.’

According to the research, after 12 days of training, about 20 fish regularly followed Scientist Solar. Later, Scientist Solar went into the sea with other scientists. Then it was seen that all the fish that Scientist Solar knew were staying near him.