National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Aggressive Risk-Takers Fished Out of Fish Gene Pool?


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February 22, 2008—Scientists put different kinds of rainbow trout—the fish type pictured here in a painting—into two artificial lakes set with gill nets in Western Canada.

They caught 50 percent of the stocked faster-growing fish but just 30 percent of the more cautious ones, they reported this week.

"This will cause evolution to slower growth rates and slow the rate of recovery for fished populations, said Peter A. Biro of the department of environmental science at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Illustration by Murayama Hashime/National Geographic