Fish Navigation Mystery Solved

Found some interesting articles today on a newly published trout study, which found that migratory fish like steelhead and salmon are using the earth's magnetic fields to navigate their way back to the original stream where they came from.
 
This is news to me, as I always thought it had something to do with a stream scent being imprinted.   Does anyone know if this means we should start using magnets to attract more Steelhead?     
 
"Now, for the first time in any animal, scientists have isolated magnetic cells in the fish that respond to these fields. The advance may help researchers get to the root of magnetic sensing in a variety of creatures, including birds.
........
To isolate magnetic cells from their non-magnetic neighbors, Winklhofer and his collaborators placed a suspension of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) cells under a microscope that had a magnet rotating around the stage that the sample sat on. Any cells containing magnetic particles should slowly rotate along with the magnet, they thought. They tested the method in tissue isolated from the fish's noses, which contain magnetite. In each trout's olfactory tissue, they found between one and four cells that rotated in turn with the rotating magnetic field. The team transferred the rotating cells to individual glass slides to study them further under the microscope."
 
http://www.huffingtonpost...c-cells_n_1661409.html
 
Other related articles:
http://www.wired.com/wire...13/02/magnetic-salmon/
http://www.eurekalert.org...13-02/cp-mmg013013.php

www.troutmagnet.com

Isn't there a blond joke like that??..WF

RE: The Locker Room Tuesday, August 02, 2011 1:11 AM ([link=javascript:void(showMsgNum(411224))]permalink[/link])
Three blondes are sitting by the side of a river holding fishing poles with the lines in the water.
A Game Warden comes up behind them, taps them on the shoulder and says, "Excuse me, ladies, I'd like to see your fishing licenses."

"We don't have any." replied the first blonde.

"Well, if you're going to fish, you need fishing licenses," said the Game Warden.

"But officer," replied the second blonde, "we aren't fishing. We all have magnets at the end of our lines and we're collecting debris off the bottom of the river."

The Game Warden lifted up all the lines and, sure enough, there were horseshoe magnets tied on the end of each line.
"Well, I know of no law against it," said the Game Warden. "Take all the debris you want."

And with that, the Game Warden left.
As soon as the Game Warden was out of sight, the three blondes started laughing hysterically.
"What a dumb Fish Cop," the second blonde said to the other two. "Doesn't he know that there are Steelheads in this river?"