Lion fish research....

I have been following this story intently. Is there no ethics in animal research in America? Is it ok for a kid to throw fish in water to record how long it takes them to die a possibly slow painful death in the name of 'science'? Universities (in Australia at least) have entire departments and committees set up specifically to review and approve animal ethics/research.
 
I'm sure that the ethics process is just as strict in America. Although its very strict here - the hoops I had to jump through to throw fish in water so they would die!

And for someone who has been following intently - you do realise that none of the fish died? This is a fairly standard methodology, thousands of animals die every year under for animal research, and this seems like a fairly ethical study. I don't know that she was working under ethics approval though, I doubt schools have ethics committees, but she might have got approval from her dad's work.
 
zooboy28 said:
I'm sure that the ethics process is just as strict in America. Although its very strict here - the hoops I had to jump through to throw fish in water so they would die!

And for someone who has been following intently - you do realise that none of the fish died? This is a fairly standard methodology, thousands of animals die every year under for animal research, and this seems like a fairly ethical study. I don't know that she was working under ethics approval though, I doubt schools have ethics committees, but she might have got approval from her dad's work.
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The articles were about the fish living for much longer in fresh water than expected, so I assumed that to measure how long the fish could survive in fresh water, she had to record the time to death.
 
nanoboy said:
The articles were about the fish living for much longer in fresh water than expected, so I assumed that to measure how long the fish could survive in fresh water, she had to record the time to death.
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Not quite, the research was on lion fish surviving in water with repeatedly lowered salinity levels, eventually reaching as low as 6 ppt, and was attempting to answer the question "What is the lowest salinity lionfish can tolerate?"

Story here: Sixth Grader's Science Fair Project Rattles Ecologists
 
zooboy28 said:
Not quite, the research was on lion fish surviving in water with repeatedly lowered salinity levels, eventually reaching as low as 6 ppt, and was attempting to answer the question "What is the lowest salinity lionfish can tolerate?"

Story here: Sixth Grader's Science Fair Project Rattles Ecologists
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Yup, you were right about the fish not dying. I stand corrected. This wasn't in the articles I read (or I missed it). Also, there appears to have been some sort of ethics approval as stated in your article:

"Lauren was given a strict set of rules by the science fair organizers. The most important one: Her fish could not die."
 
Yes, I guess she had some guidelines to work under - and I suspect she did the work at her dad's work anyway, bit technical for an at-home experiment.
 
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