An aquarium in America has come up with a novel solution to the problem of visitors identifying what species of fish they are actually looking at.
There you are at the aquarium for the day, the tank is full of strange, wonderful and unusual species circling gracefully before our eyes when a small voice says: "Daddy, what's that big silver fish there called?"
You stare blankly at the glass, desperately trying to identify the individual from the passing throng, comparing it with the marine mugshots displayed around the tank, but it's too late. The fish has gone, and along with it the chance of impressing anyone with your encyclopaedic knowledge of things aquatic and your disappointed child has lost interest and wandered off into the black-hole of despair known as the gift shop.
Well, the Virginia Aquarium has come up with a solution that will go some way toward ending such ichthyological ignorance with their new display called "Fish and Chips".
Through the wonders of modern technology they have microchipped around 40 fish in the tank so as each fish swims past an antenna outside, information including the fishes species, along with extra detail such as habitat, worldwide distribution, weight and in many cases where and when it was collected are quickly and clearly displayed on screens in front of the tank.
They've even included nicknames so you can tell Kermit the croaker from his croaker look-alikes!
The chips are adapted from the sort used to identify your cat or dog with a change in radio frequency to transmit through water. They also allow staff to more closely monitor the health of individuals within a shoal, as an earlier microchip ID system required the fish to be removed from the water for scanning.
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