Gutted Fish, urr Zombie Fish

What happens when you put a gutted, dead fish back in the water?

Apparently it swims on its own! Maybe, its like the chicken running around after the head has been chopped off. This video footage of a fish that has been completely gutted and had the meat filleted from its sides and is then dropped back into the water.

It is crazy what happens next.

While this seems completely crazy, there must be a reasonable explanation. Either the fish was not actually dead, and was just quickly gutted while still alive, or like many animals, its body can continue to move in familiar ways after it is killed.

Obviously as an outdoorsman, I am hoping that it is the second of these two explanations. I personally would never want to promote making an animal suffer. If you are going to harvest an animal it should be done in the quickest and cleanest way possible to ensure that the animal does not have to suffer.

If this is a case of the neurons continuing to fire after the fish dies (think chicken with its head cut off), then it is actually really neat that it was able to be captured on film. This would mean that the fish is already completely dead and feels nothing.

Sources: Jimmy Huynh Youtube, Chris Buckner