According to a new study, fish might be evolving to swim more rapidly to get away from capture by fishing nets from trawlers. The study has been conducted by the University of Glasgow. It shows that fast-swimming fish are difficult to trap by fishing nets and in the long run this could bring physiological changes in fish populations.

The researchers made efforts to find out whether a few individual fish were more susceptible to be captured over and over again. They measured the metabolic rate, swimming ability and indicators of aerobic and anaerobic physical fitness of a number of fish.

It has been found by researchers that there are common traits of fish that are most vulnerable to being captured by trawlers. They made use of laboratory-based experiments to determine that. As per researchers, the data could assist in answering questions regarding fisheries-induced evolutionary change in population of fish. The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.

According to lead author Shaun Killen from the University of Glasgow, "What we were interested in, within a trawling scenario, was whether there was a variation among the fish in terms of how likely they were to be captured”. Killen added that they examined the individual contribution of physiology in finding out which fish were captured and which were not.

According to Dr Killen and colleagues, selective harvest of animals possibly shows one of the most powerful drivers of evolutionary change for wild creatures.