Scientists at the University of Glasgow through a recent study have found that fish that are fit are much better to evade nets. The study helped researchers understand that if the same continues, over time, it could lead to physiological changes in future fish population.

Researchers stated that fish are learning to swim faster to evade the nets and if this change of adoption continues it may be a natural evolution from a prey trying to get away from the predator.

Study researchers investigated to find whether commercial trawling has witnessed similar behavior from fish or whether this drives evolutionary change in them to evade capture.

Researchers speculate that in coming time, fish will be less catchable, but the evolution could lead to physiological changes in future fish populations.

Dr Shaun Killen of the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, said, “There is a lot of concern on how overfishing is affecting the abundance of wild fish, consequences for the economy, employment and the ecosystem as a whole”.

Researchers conducted an experiment in order to investigate two key questions whether some individuals within a fish shoal were more susceptible to capture by trawling than others, and if so, was susceptibility related to individual differences in swimming performance and metabolism?

They found that some fish were more susceptible to capture than others and this was strongly related to anaerobic capacity. They also found that maximum aerobic swim speed was also negatively correlated with vulnerability to trawling.

Findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.