It's raining fish?!?!

 

While flying on American Airlines, this article caught my attention.  Forover 100 years, following heavy seasonal rainstorms, thousands of small fishare found in a village in Honduras.  Itis so regular that there is now an associated festival called Lluvia de Peces.

It happens in the same village every time.  In fact, it happens in the same field near thisvillage, and it is the same type of fish every time.  And they are freshwater fish that are notknown in any nearby streams.  And (in my humble opinion) none of this fits with the common explanation - waterspouts.

There are plenty of accounts of studies by “The MeteorologicalOffice” and “National Geographic”, and the “International Climate Office”, butnot a single hit if one searches “Fish Rain” or “Lluvia de Peces” on Web of Science.  This phenomenon is the subjectof paintings (see the lovely work by Honduran artist Roque Zelaya above), andsongs, and poems, but no scientific studies.

So it is labeled a mystery.  And I love mysteries that might be solved byscience.  If you have read our project description or other labnotes on karst, you probably already know our hypothesis.  Yup, it's karst conduits.  Maybe the fish live underground and areexpelled by springs after storms?  Maybe theylive in an alpine lake on a nearby mountain, and during storms, the lakeoverflows into a sinkhole connected to a karst plumbing system that then discharges froma spring onto this field?  What anexciting trip for the poor fish!

You can see that the work we are doing in the Austro-GermanAlps could answer these questions in Honduras.  And that is where we plan to gonext… if we can raise the funds.  Pleasehelp us out!

Thank you.