Fish, the new weapon in war on terror

Fish, the new weapon in war on terror

From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Tokyo
July 24, 2006

FORGET about Japanese technology. The country's latest contribution to the war on terrorism is tiny fish, which will be deployed to detect contamination of water supplies.

Light-orange ricefish, which are some 4cm long and are commonly kept as pets in Japan, will alert authorities if their movement is irregular.
Shizuoka prefecture south of Tokyo devised the fish alert system after the government asked the country to come up with anti-terrorist measures following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.

If the water is contaminated, the fish show irregular behavior, such as swimming with their noses near the surface because of breathing problems, or simply die.

"This live water surveillance system is useful because usual water filters take up to 15 hours to detect contamination, whereas with these rice-fish it will only take three hours," said Mitsuyoshi Hori, an official handling the project.

Shizuoka prefecture started using ricefish on a test basis last year at two water plants Hamamatsu city and will soon equip the prefecture's central system.

"Of course, we don't know what the real possibility is of terrorist attacks on our water supply, but we should be ready. Although if it really did happen it would be a whole other story of greater degree," Mr Hori said.