Fish Story

As every ichthyologist knows, certain fish seem to possess an acutely developed weather sense: e.g., the loach, a species of carp (known in Germany as the "weather fish"), which becomes very lively when the barometer drops. From Cape Town last week came a whopping weather-fish story. Dr. Cecil von Bonde, South Africa's fisheries director, said he was testing a fish which seems able to forecast weather after death.

The fish is Ostracion diaphenus, known to South Africans as Seevarkie or "sea piggy," to the U.S. as the "trunk fish." This eight-inch creature is encased in a bony hide like armor. Dr. von Bonde became interested in it when he learned that Malay fishermen of Cape Town were in the habit of drying it and hanging it up with a string to determine the direction of coming gales. He hung a Seevarkie in a draft-free room in his aquarium. The nose of the dead, free-swinging fish pointed in a certain direction. Sure enough, winds began to blow from the same direction outdoors shortly thereafter.

Dr. von Bonde thereupon took the fish to Cape Town's Youngsfield Aerodrome, where he hung it among modern meteorological instruments. During the next few months, meteorologists will consider every movement of the fish in the light of instrument readings. Dr. von Bonde doubts that his informal aquarium tests really proved "anything definite," but he announced hopefully: "The Seevarkie must have a fair chance to prove its case."

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