section_path: Behavior/Shoaling and schooling
section_name: Shoaling and schooling
paragraph_text: Shoaling and schooling
  
  A shoal is a loosely organised group where each fish swims and forages independently but is attracted to other members of the group and adjusts its behaviour, such as swimming speed, so that it remains close to the other members of the group. A school is a much more tightly organised group, synchronising its swimming so that all fish move at the same speed and in the same direction. Schooling is sometimes an antipredator adaptation, offering improved vigilance against predators. It is often more efficient to gather food by working as a group, and individual fish optimise their strategies by choosing to join or leave a shoal. When a predator has been noticed, prey fish respond defensively, resulting in collective shoal behaviours such as synchronised movements. Responses do not consist only of attempting to hide or flee; antipredator tactics include for example scattering and reassembling. Fish also aggregate in shoals to spawn. The capelin migrates annually in large schools between its feeding areas and its spawning grounds.