UTAH — Where do baby fish come from? If you answered “the sky,” you may be closer than you think.
In Utah, as well as other states, wildlife officials are making a practice of raising fish in hatcheries, flying them out to bodies of water in airplanes, and literally strafing them into the water.
The method allows officials to quickly reach lakes in rugged areas, and to make sure native species aren’t overfished or otherwise damaged.
One hatchery supervisor decided to make a video of the process.
“I got the idea to put the GoPro on the plane,” said Ted Hallows, who supervises the State Hatchery in Kamas, Utah. “In June and July, we aerial-stock tiger trout, a lot of brook trout, rainbow trout and splake. Then in the fall, we put cutthroat trout and arctic grayling in the lakes.”
The fish come out of a compartment at the bottom of the aircraft, FOX13 reported. Hundreds, sometimes up to a thousand, three-inch fingerlings are part of the bombardments, Hallows said.
“They kind of flutter down, so they don’t impact very hard,” Hallows said. “They do really well.”
