Life after death? Footage of fish thrashing around even after being sliced in half goes viral! - Watch video

Image courtesy: Yutaka Suzuki/Twitter

New Delhi: Fish is a staple delicacy in many cities around the world and fishing – a livelihood for many people.

The process is simple – catch fish, wash it, cut it (or not) and sell it to the customers. Or from a customer's perspective – select the fish you want to buy (cut or whole), clean, cook and eat.

But, what if the fish doesn't want to die? Yes, that's possible – at least according to a strange video that has gone viral.

The video clip shows a yellowfin tuna – completely sliced in half, mind you – still thrashing around on a plastic tray as if it's whole for at least a minute and a half.

While it may be funny for some and gruesome for others, people on social media have been creeped out by the footage all the same. While the fish wasn't identified, a woman's voice in the video says that it's buri, Japanese for yellowtail tuna, according to SoraNews24.

As to why this is happening, a few twitter users have speculated that the fish's nerves weren't properly severed, which would've rendered them inactive.

As per Mashable, Japanese fishermen typically insert a spike directly into a fish's hindbrain in a method called ikejime, which causes immediate brain death, stopping involuntary muscle reflexes. When ikejime is done properly, the fish fins flare and the fish will relax.

Proponents say that not doing so could affect the taste of the fish, as the fish's muscles produce lactic acid as they thrash about.

The video has been re-tweeted over 174,000 times since it was originally posted.

魚の生命力が凄い pic.twitter.com/LjoIO3609n — 鈴木豊 Yutaka Suzuki (@Q57OUPrpy8OZaWt) July 5, 2017