Could this be the new frontier for fisheries managers — supplementing fish populations with hatchery-reared “super fish” that are artificially juiced to build muscle, increase stamina and stave off injury so that they can swim longer and harder and put up a Herculean fight for anglers?
Dr. Rob Hayward, a fisheries expert, isn’t sure, although he isn’t averse to finding out, either. Hayward said that he and another professor have conducted “some very, very interesting research,” the results of which are turning heads in fisheries management circles and elsewhere.
The duo has been feeding rainbow trout a diet of 5 percent Creatine, the naturally occurring amino acid (contrary to some, Creatine isn’t a steroid or a growth hormone, Hayward says) that former Major League Baseball slugger Mark McGuire said he used as he chased baseball’s single-season home-runrecord in 1998. The results show that some of the rainbows are responding to the Creatine diet like humans who regularly take the popular yet controversial body building supplement and follow a consistent weightlifting program.
They’re getting stronger, at least as measured by the length of time they were able to swim against a current in a controlled setting. “For some, we’re seeing a five-fold increase in their stamina,” said Hayward of the juiced rainbows. “We’re very intrigued with what we’re finding, but it is all still preliminary. Most of the fish testing is done, but we still have to do tissue analysis.”
According to Hayward, each rainbow’s stamina was measured by using a Plexiglas swim tube, inside of which the water current could be regulated — similar, he said, to running on a treadmill. “You can adjust the flow rate, then you see how the fish react,” he said. “Some of the rainbows, which are current-oriented fish, really responded.”
But some fish didn’t, he said. For bluegills that were put on Creatine, for example, the results were less pronounced. “With bluegills, they’re more of a sedentary fish and are a little more reluctant to swim,” he said. The research, which was aided by two graduate students and first used by University of Missouri researchers in pigs, has struck nerves with some. Indeed, critics of the research — and it appears to be a growing list — are worried on a number of levels.
One: Critics say that naturally reproduced rainbow trout — that is, wild fish — are much better fighters than hatchery-reared fish, but they also need clean, cold water to survive and thrive. If Creatine-laced rainbows are in fact a better fighting fish and eventually become mainstream, some worry that our environmental standards will erode. After all, fish managers can just release more Creatine-enhanced trout into our streams and rivers without having to worry about water quality, they say.
Two: Some are worried that manipulating the physiology of a fish for a better “fight” is unethical and shouldn’t be done. In fact, some have called Hayward’s Creatine-enhanced rainbows “Frankfish.”
Three: Some wonder if Creatine-enhanced fish are safe to eat. They also worry about the cost of such management.
For the record, Hayward says, Creatine is sold over the counter as a supplement. It’s also legal, he said. But the federal government does not approve of Creatine in fish for food consumption by humans. In short, the F.D.A. has not approved Creatine as a food additive.
“I certainly can’t say if our research has any application to fishing or aquaculture, but I can see where some people might be bothered by it,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to see our approach to environmental stewardship change at all. I’m an environmentalist. I want clean water and healthy streams and rivers.”
While some fee-for-fishing operations have expressed interest in the super trout, Hayward says his research has more promise in the saltwater aquaculture arena, where fish are raised for human consumption as far as 200 miles off shore.
“The harvest of wild fish in our oceans is maxed out right now and that likely won’t change, and that has ramifications for how we’re going to feed our expanding human population, which could reach 13 billion by 2050,” he said. “But if we can supplement the diet of those fish with Creatine, they might grow stronger and be able to withstand stronger currents and force.”
In short, Hayward said, more fish may survive for human consumption, though he admits that’s a long ways away. “It would require rigorous long-term study,” he said, adding that environmental safeguards must not be compromised. “My role is just providing the science. But you have to admit it does provide some interesting possibilities.”
Good Fishing.
Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsman who has taught people to fish and hunt for nearly 30 years. Watch his award-winning “Good Fishing” and “Outdoor Secrets” television shows on Versus Network, Fox Sports, Wild TV and many local networks.By: Babe Winkelman / Babe Winkelman Productions
