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try again.  not a member?   October 25, 2001  Distant Touch
What purpose does a fish's lateral line serve? and how does it
work?  Q: When I tag fish, I know that I'm supposed to avoid the
lateral line. But what does the lateral line do? I've heard that
fish use it to hear, or to sense temperature or pressure. Which
is it and how does it work? - Matthew Stickney, Jacksonville,
Florida  A: Fish use their lateral lines to feel low-frequency
vibrations or pulsing movements in the water. The sense is
somewhere between our senses of hearing and touch. Some
researchers have called it the sense of "distant touch." The
lateral line is composed of many tiny organs called neuromasts,
set in a line of pits along each side of the fish. From each
neuromast, a capsule containing sensory hairs sticks out of the
fish's skin. When a pulse of moving water - created, for
example, when another fish swims by - passes over a fish's
lateral line, each capsule bends sl