“How to Properly Throw Fish From an Aeroplane”

Anders Halverson, author of An Entirely Synthetic Fish, writes entertainingly in Gizmodo about the history and practice of dumping trout from airplanes—how a post-war surplus of military aircraft and one man’s creativity made stocking trout from the air a common practice.

“First, [Al] Reese tried freezing the fish in ice blocks and parachuting them in ice cream containers. Both of these techniques, though, proved dangerous and difficult. And so, one day, Reese and his assistants tried a simpler technique. They put 50 trout and some water into a five-gallon (19-litre) can and threw it out the window toward a hatchery pond about 350 feet (107m) below.”

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