Can Fish Drown?

This is an interesting question. People regard drowning as not being able to breathe under water. This is the same for fish as they can't breathe in air. So I guess you can say that they drown in air. Sharks are often hunted for their fins and when they are caught their fins are chopped of and they are thrown back into the sea alive. Some species of shark have to keep swimming all of the time even when they sleep. This is to pass water through their mouths and over their gills to allow them to breathe. Without their fins they are unable to swim and therefore can't breathe, so they in effect "drown". Fish, like people, need oxygen to live. A fish out of water is a fish out of its element. A fish comes fully equipped with a pair of gills, which it uses to breathe under water. The gills extract life-sustaining oxygen from the hydrogen in the water molecules, in order to regulate the amount of oxygen intake. This maintains the necessary balance of the two components of water for the fish to survive. When a fish is taken out of water, and exposed only to air, not to oxygen and hydrogen containing water, its gills are unable to control the oxygen intake, the delicate balance cannot be maintained, and the gills inhale a lethal overdose of oxygen. The fish essentially experiences death by "drowning."