Catfish and the Earthquake.

Scientists are always looking for ways to predict earthquakes.If an accurate prediction can be made far enough in asvance, people can be told to leave the area, and lives can be saved.Japan is one of the major earthquake areas in the world. You could say the japanese are "earthquake professionals." So it is not surprising to learn that they have noticed a relationship between animals behavior and earthquakes.Just before the 1855 eqrthquake, a fisherman reported nervous catfish. They swam to and from in the water as though they were restless or anxious. The fisherman saw this as a sign of an oncoming quake. He hurried home and managed to save his family minutes before the tremor struck.So the scientists got busy. In the 1930's, Professor Hatai at Tohoku University set an experiment. He watched the behavior of catfish in the laboratory tanks. Day after day, the catfish remained calm. They did not even react to finger tapping on the table that held their tank. Hatai noticed, however, that in 80 percent of the cases they became jumpy six to eight hours before an earthquake. Hatai believes that catfish are somehow sensitive to electrical currents in the earth. These currents change before earthquiake activity.( From "Concentrate of Critical Reading")