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Diver Snaps First Photo of Fish Using Tools

Posted by timothy on from the wake-me-when-they-enter-asynchronous-trade dept.

sciencehabit writes with this excerpt from Science: "While exploring Australia's Great Barrier Reef, professional diver Scott Gardner heard an odd cracking sound and swam over to investigate. What he found was a footlong blackspot tuskfish holding a clam in its mouth and whacking it against a rock. Soon the shell gave way, and the fish gobbled up the bivalve, spat out the shell fragments, and swam off. Fortunately, Gardner had a camera handy and snapped what seem to be the first photographs of a wild fish using a tool." (Not everyone agrees that this constitutes tool use, says the article, in part because the "tool" isn't something that the fish can actually manipulate.)

6 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. obligatory comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I for one welcome our new fish overlords.

  2. Misread the title by mortonda · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't every camera technically a tool? Diver have used cameras all the time!

    Oohhh, the fish using a tool. :P

  3. Call Stanley Kubrick by atari2600a · · Score: 5, Funny

    That whole scene with the monkeys is gonna need some MAJOR rewriting...

  4. Mailing List by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fish should begin receiving catalogs from Harbor Freight in the mail any day now.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. I don't get it... by sirwired · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A fish beat the crap out of a clam by hitting it against a rock? I'm not quite sure this qualifies as "tool" use. Now, grabbing the rock, and beating clam with it, or using it to pry open the clam... that would sound more "tool-like."

    1. Re:I don't get it... by melikamp · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, the fish was sculpting the rock with a clam, but then the clam broke and the fish got distracted. Not merely an instance of tool use, this is clearly an attempt at creating an enduring cultural artifact.