Why don’t saltwater fish absorb the salinity of the oceans and taste salty?

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Just curious as to why fish and other sea creatures that live in salt water are not overly salty when ingested? I would think they would absorb most of the salt they live and breathe in.

Edit: added the word overly

In: Biology

13 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

All animals on Earth need salt to live. For example, animals with brains like humans use salt to keep their brains healthy and for controlling their body. But animals need the right amount of salt: too much or too little will hurt them.

Fish that live in saltwater are in a funny situation: saltwater has too much salt in it for their brains! So fish bodies have to take the salt out of the water they absorb, and put that salt back out into the ocean. If they absorbed the salt and kept it, their brains would have bad problems.

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