FWC working to expand fish sedation approval

Hey, welcome back. It is 8:44. Florida researchers are testing an innovative way to keep hatchery fish healthy during long journeys. A plant-based sedative. Eugenol is, I hope I pronounced that right, is a natural compound that's commonly used in toothache medicine. Researchers say it prevents fish from frantically thrashing around in the tanks. And now FWC is working to expand its approval. To include saltwater fish like red drum and local hatcheries as well. So joining us for more on this is Dr. Josh Patterson with the UF and Florida Aquarium Center for Conservation in Apollo Beach. Dr. Patterson, good morning. Morning. How are you, Dave? I'm doing fantastic. And I didn't know that we needed to sedate fish, but it makes sense after I read the intro, right? Yeah, I mean, it makes sense to us that, you know, you can kind of think of it like sometimes when people might be getting on an airplane and there might be some anxiety that they might experience, they might take a little something just to knock the edge off, right, and make that flight a little more bearable. So if you think about packing a bunch of fish into a similar kind of confined space, it can help relieve some of the stress that they experience. Has this been something that in the past decades, we've had a lot of fish kill and you guys had to come up with something to stop this? So it's really not for like fish kills in natural water. It's more like when we want to stock fish, when we want to enhance populations of like the red drum that you mentioned, we want those fish to be in as good a shape as they possibly can be when we release them into the water from the hauling tank. Tell me about this. And so that's when in the hauling tank is when we really want to probably use this compound. I got you. So hey, tell me about this drug or this chemical. What do you want to call it? Called Eugenol. Did I pronounce it right? And what is it? Yeah, eugenol is absolutely the correct pronunciation. It's actually derived from clove oil. So if you think about like something you might put on your Thanksgiving ham, you know, it's a naturally occurring compound. It's actually about the mid 1990s is when it was discovered that this compound was useful for sedating fish to varying degrees. So it's it's it's kind of like the fish are getting ready for a medical procedure and being transferred and they just need to kind of chill out a little bit because, you know, as well as I do, you pull a fish out of the water like that. They're flapping all over the place, stressing themselves out. Exactly. Yeah. So it can help the people handling the fish as well, because the fish is much more relaxed. The doses that we're looking at at a high enough dose, it will fully, you know, sedate the fish. The fish will go belly up. And just be kind of anesthetized. We're looking at light sedation where we might be able to handle them, put them in a hauling box, and they would still be able to kind of have their wits about them, but not be as stressed. Now, is this working for freshwater and saltwater hatcheries, say just largemouth bass, red drum? Like, tell me what fish right now we're using this on. Yeah, so we're testing it, you're correct, it can work in freshwater or saltwater. We're testing it on largemouth bass, as well as red drum. And so FWC here in Florida is interested in stocking both of those species. There's actually a lot of largemouth bass that are already stocked for fishing, and we're working towards stocking red drum as well. And so. We're investigating this compound for both of those. Yeah, we've just got a few seconds left, and I've got to ask you, what kind of lasting effect does it have on the fish? Or is it kind of like when we get anesthetized? It's like you wake up a little groggy, and then you're fine afterward. Yeah, that's one of the things we're hoping to find out with the research. We don't believe it has any lasting effects. And of course, we don't want there to be any lasting effects, because once we put that fish back in the bay or back in the lake, we need it to act like a natural fish and be able to escape predators and survive. So that's one of the things the research is looking at. Thank you, Dr. Josh Patterson. I never knew. Anything about this, and I feel smarter this morning as a result. I really, really do. When you're completely done with the research, let us know. I want to hear more about the lasting impacts and all the different fish you've been able to use this with. So thank you. Much appreciated. Yeah, thank you, Dave. Great chatting with you. Thanks so much. Hey, I want to hear from you folks as well, because what science questions do you want to know about? Make them... Long and complicated and difficult, so we can get really cool professors on to answer them for you. Scan the QR code. Very simple. Just let me know and we may feature your question in a future Dave O the Science Pro segment.