Have you ever seen a porpoise? It's a sea animal like a dolphin or a small whale. Scientists think it is one of the most intelligent animals in the world.
Professor Toshiro Kuroki, an official of the oceanology center, has said that the "shepherd" porpoises could be extremely effective after a training of three ou four generations. Experiments have shown that porpoises possess intelligence greater than dogs or monkeys and would be ideal for herding. Professor Kuroki sees porpoises herding schools of fish far out at sea and working in teams to drive them toward the Japaneses coast, where they would be forced into net-encircled "fish farms" for fattening. The Japanese oceanology expert has predicted that not only Japan but other countries as well will use porpoises to drive fish into "farm" nets scattered round the vast reaches of the Atlantic and the Pacific.
If this new system works, it will be far cheaper than recent experements in Britain as well as in Japan in which scientists have used land-based fish farms to breed fish for food.
(Adapted from an article in the Australian Financial Times)