Reason for Flying Fish in Utah Lakes and How the Fishes Survive the Drop from Airplane

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) usually drops pounds and pounds of fish every year from planes and the reason was unknown for most of the people. The DWR recently released a video showing the high altitude dropping of a large amount of fish with water blasting from the plane to fall into the lake of the mountainside in Utah.

Utah is the famous fishing spot for hikers and camper and serves as people's favorite spot for a long time. It is mandatory for the officials to restock the fishes into the lake in order to satisfy the needs of fishing. This is the reason behind the Utah fish drops in lake yearly once.

About 35,000 fishes with hundreds of pounds of water were stored in the aircraft and are dropped from a specific height. It is quite a surprise how these fishes survive the fall from such a height on water. These fishes which are to be dropped in the lake are specially grown in the hatcheries with a size of 1 - 3 inches and dropped from a specific height so that it manages to make a safe fall into the lake.

About 95% of the fish is said to survive the fall and get utilized for the fishing purpose. The fishes are also bred to be sterile in the hatcheries to avoid affecting the ecosystem of the lake. The size of the fish with a timely drop slows down the dropping speed of the fish and makes sure of a comfortable landing. 

The practice began in the year 1956 when fishes were loaded in milk tanks and are carried by using a horse. They were taken through the mountains while most of the attempts get collapsed by this means of travel. Meanwhile, vehicles don't even stand a chance to enter the place amidst of such a path. Hence is this way of transport for the purpose of fish drop by the DWR.

This method of dropping fishes from the airplane is proved to be cost-effective and safest means and a single drop can have seven lakes of storage in it. The next fish drop is expected to be done in the month of July by next year. Until then the tiny fishes will be prepared in hatcheries to get dropped and hunted.

Video Credits - Science Insider YouTube