Robotic Fish Are This Invasive Species' 'Worst Nightmare'

[Judi Lynn]

The tiny swimmers wreak havoc across the globe, but the robofish shocked them enough to impair their survival and reproduction

Rasha Aridi
Daily Correspondent
December 17, 2021



RGiovanni Polverino

Mosquitofish may look small and unassuming, but don't let appearances fool you: these invasive fish are menaces. Outside of their range, they outcompete other freshwater critters—like fishes and tadpoles—and feast on their eggs. Since they don't have any natural predators beyond their range, their population goes unchecked as they wreak havoc on native wildlife, Charlotte Hu reports for Popular Science.

For decades, scientists scratched their heads trying to figure out how to control mosquitofish in a way that doesn't also harm the ecosystem—a seemingly impossible feat. But they've finally had a breakthrough with a terrifying new tool meant to intimidate mosquitofish: a robotic fish, Livia Albeck-Ripka reports for the New York Times. The researchers reported their findings this week in the journal iScience.

"Instead of killing them one by one, we’re presenting an approach that can inform better strategies to control this global pest," lead author Giovanni Polverino, a biologist at the University of Western Australia, says in a press release. "We made their worst nightmare become real: a robot that scares the mosquitofish but not the other animals around it."

In the 1900s, scientists introduced mosquitofish all over the world in an effort to control mosquito populations, since they feed on the insects' larvae. The goal was to curb the spread of illnesses like malaria, but instead of feasting on mosquito larvae, the fish chomped on native critters and their eggs. Without a natural predators around, the population boomed, Jonathan Lambert reports for Science News.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-terrify-invasive-mosquitofish-with-their-worst-nightmare-a-robotic-fish-180979258/

[SCantiGOP]

1. The fish are preparing to fight

They will not accept their robot overlords.

[Igel]

2. Or worse.

Collect the parts and build robotic humans to do to us what we wanted to do to the mosquitofish.

Or perhaps they've already started it and the first walk among us. Would explain a few things.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Earlier this month: Robotic fish could unlock mysteries of life at bottom of world's deepest ocean

Fish robot
Video grab of flapping actuation of soft robot in the Mariana Trench at the depth of 10,900 m. This video shows deep sea field test of soft robot in the Mariana Trench. Mounted on a deep sea lander, the soft robot reached the bottom of Mariana Trench. At the depth of 10,900m in the Mariana Trench, the DE driven soft robot kept flapping its fins. The front view and side view of the soft robot were recorded by the deep sea cameras and LED lights in anti-pressure shells. (Zhejiang University)


DECEMBER 15, 2021

HANGZHOU, China — A self-powered robot inspired by a fish could unlock the mysteries of life seven miles down at the bottom of the world’s deepest ocean. The robotic fish wiggles its body and flaps its fins just like the real thing and is set to improve exploration of the uncharted seas.

The robot, described in the prestigious British journal Nature, is the most advanced of its kind ever built. It’s based on the pink snailfish, which lives in the Mariana Trench, an abyss in the western Pacific Ocean almost seven miles beneath the waves. The idea is that it won’t freak out underwater creatures, many of which are still to be discovered — they will assume it’s just another fish.

“In trials, the robot was found to operate successfully there,” says corresponding study-author Tiefeng Li of Zhejiang University, per South West News Service. “It also swam freely up to two miles below the surface in the South China Sea.”

The oceans contain 99 percent of the living area on the planet. Yet they are so hard to explore that scientists know more about space. That could be about to change. As climate change and overfishing wreak havoc on oceans, scientists are racing to study marine life in detail.

More:
https://www.studyfinds.org/robotic-fish-unlock-mysteries-worlds-deepest-ocean/