Mesmerizing video shows hundreds of fish being released from back of plane into lake

These drops help lakes stay stocked with fish, Utah officials say

Video footage this week shows an airplane flying over a clear blue lake surrounding by lush forest — and then opening a hatch and dumping hundreds of fish from the sky, the animals flailing mid-air as they plummet toward the serene waters below.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), who released the video, says it’s all part of an effort to restock lakes with fish like trout and grayling.

“If you see flying fish at Utah’s remote waters, don’t be alarmed,” the DWR said. “We stock many high-elevation lakes aerially each summer, and we’ve been doing it for a long time!”

The practice has been going on in Utah since the 1950s, they added, and the practice helps sustain fish populations. They stock cutthroat trout, a fish native to Utah, as well as other species like brook trout, tiger trout and Arctic grayling.

The non-native fish released are usually sterile, DWR said, to prevent reproduction and any impact on native species.

In large part, this aerial dropping is done so that anglers have more fish to catch. And planes fly pretty low — about 100 feet off the ground — to make the fall as short as possible for the fish. Even so, the fish they drop are pretty small, the agency reported, at around 1-3 inches.

This method of aerial drop is the most efficient way of restocking the lake, DWR said, as they can hit seven different lakes in one flight, and between 40 and 60 lakes per day.

The state restocks over 300 lakes this way every year.

And if you’re wondering what it sounds like when tons of little fish hit the water from the sky, the Utah officials say that people have reported the phenomenon sounding like rain.