Triggerfish - Smarter Every Day 4
[Music] [Rushing waves] Hey, it's me, Destin. We're in the Gulf of Mexico and we're about to go fishing. And I'm gonna beat all these guys at fishing.
- It's not gonna happen.
- It's not gonna be me.
(Destin) Alright ladies, how're we doing over here?
- Look at our basket and see how we're doing over here.
- ...Caught triggerfish.
(Destin) Triggerfish?
- I caught 'im.
(Destin) You caught it? So the reason they call it a triggerfish is because you have to pull a trigger in order to get the dorsal fin to go down.
(Destin) Ah!
(Destin) Okay, if you ask me it is awesome anytime there's some type of mechanical device built into an animal. Well, that's just the case with the triggerfish. The front dorsal fin is a spine that locks in position. It cannot be folded down until the rear one is folded backwards, just like pulling a trigger on a gun.
Now, this is good for two reasons: The first reason is a triggerfish likes to hide in a hole, and it'll lock the front dorsal fin. No predator can get it out unless it chooses to unlock itself. Secondly, if a predator tries to eat the triggerfish, the huge dorsal fin on the front will rip its insides apart, killing it. So, it's a built-in defense mechanism.
[Cocking sound effect] [Bang] [Seagulls crying] Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.