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Roughly half of all vertebrates on this planet are teleost or bony fish. Their sensitivities to environmental molecules allows them to recognize different kinds of chemical compounds in the water.

Many olfactory and taste related cues pervade the aquatic environment and elicit various endocrine and behavioral responses which are essential for fish survival and reproduction.

Fish rely on highly specialized sensory abilities that help them navigate within their aqueous environment. Their sensing of chemical compounds through taste and smell is highly elaborate, providing fish with the ability to receive, discriminate and interpret various types of water soluble chemicals. They efficiently use taste and smell for social interactions, for escaping or avoiding dangerous environments, for determining beneficial or detrimental conditions, and for locating food.

Compounds released from the skin of injured fish have long been known to elicit a vigorous alarm response from many fish species. This alarm response is characterized by darting, followed by slow swimming or freezing.

The Bio Catch research team has shown that receptor cells involved in smell and taste are highly selective, responding only to specific molecular configurations.

Fish possess an incredibly acute sense of smell that serves as a primary long-distance tool, with some species detecting odor molecules at concentrations as low as one part per billion.Their olfactory system allows fish to detect food sources from long distances. Water carrying dissolved chemical molecules flows through their nasal passages, where receptor cells in the olfactory epithelium bind with specific molecules.

Molecular compounds associated with a potential food source bind to olfactory receptor cells dispersed throughout the epithelium. Crypt, microvillous, and ciliated cells are positioned at different depths within the sensory epithelium. Together they represent the total olfactory sensory neuron population in virtually all freshwater and marine fish species.

When olfactory receptor cells are activated by appropriate chemical compounds, they generate an electrical signal that travels through sensory neurons directly to the glomeruli in the olfactory bulb as well as the olfactory telencephalon and diencephalon within the forebrain where scent information signals are processed.