{
  "id": 16248453,
  "title": "Japanese rice fish can dive over 10 meters deep, high school students in Nara Pref. find",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/24/japanese-rice-fish-can-dive-over-10-meters-deep-high-school-students",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-24T00:00:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Mainichi",
    "slug": "the-mainichi",
    "url": "https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20261023/p2a/00m/0sc/016000c"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "KASHIHARA, Nara -- Three high school students in Nara Prefecture discovered that the Japanese rice fish, or medaka, can dive more than 10 meters deep in a specially designed tank at Unebi Senior High School. The experiment, conducted on October 17, involved placing 12 medaka in a 10.66-meter deep aquarium. While most of the fish turned back or stayed near the surface, two medaka caught in a nearby waterway descended to near the tank's bottom and swam there for some time. Professor Shoji Fukamachi, a life sciences expert from Japan Women's University, believes this is the first time medaka have been observed voluntarily diving to such depths in experimental conditions. The students, inspired by the research, plan to conduct further experiments to determine why some medaka dive deep while others remain in shallow water.",
  "summary": "KASHIHARA, Nara -- High school students here found that the Japanese rice fish, commonly known as medaka, can voluntarily dive more than 10 meters dee",
  "key_points": [
    "High school students in Nara Prefecture discovered medaka can dive over 10 meters deep.",
    "Experiment conducted on October 17 with 12 medaka in 10.66-meter deep aquarium.",
    "Two medaka voluntarily descended to near tank's bottom, first observation of such behavior."
  ],
  "editors_take": "This unexpected behavior challenges existing assumptions about the vertical range of medaka and opens new avenues for students to investigate the specific biological drivers behind individual diving tendencies.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}