Magnetic Salmon and Sustainable Fishing

At the turn of the 20th century, there were several reports of various fishing and shipping vessels having Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) stuck to the side of the hull. During this period the hulls on the vessels were still made almost completely out of iron. The reports at the time theorized that some kind of magnetic current was holding the fish to the hulls. Little attention was paid to the reports and it fell into obscurity and theoccurrences stopped with the rise of alloy hulls.

However, in 2002, Dr. Eilert Moen, whose grandfather had been aboard a vessel who has reported an instance of the salmon phenomenon, began research on these occurrences in the hopes of developing a sustainable fishing practice, one that could be used to replace bottom trawling and large, environmentally unfriendly nets. In 2003, in a paper entitled Electromagnetic Attraction of Salmo spp. to Marine Ferris Objects, he determined that Atlantic Salmon have an enzyme called Therrase, which is used to aid in the digestion on amphipods. He proposed that when a certain current is induced in the water, it flips the enzyme, causing it to become slightly magnetic. This causes the fish to be attracted to the large charged metallic objects, such as hulls. Current research is being completed to try to determine what current is most effective at flipping Therrase through large bodies of water.

Dr. Moen hypothesizes that if this current could be induced on a large enough scale, the fishing industry could be revolutionized. Fishing for Atlantic salmon could be accomplished by sending a current through the water, which would flip the Therrase enzyme in nearby fish. These fish could then be harvested using large magnets, which would be a much more sustainable fishing practice as compared to current methods, which includes bottom trawling. If implemented, this current would cause only the Atlantic salmon to be attracted to the magnets, thus reducing the damaging effects of the fishing industry. "World fisheries are in decline, it is projected that they will collapse by the year 2050. Practices like these can reduce our impact on the world and other living species", said Dr. Moen in a recent interview.