KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: For Japanese inventors attempting to revolutionize the boating industry by taking a cue from nature, Allard Beutel examines the fishy engineering behind his invention.</s>ALLARD BEUTEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It doesn't take a mechanical engineer to figure out there's something a little different about this boat. Japanese inventor Akira Tomizawa is convinced this fake fish is the wave of the future. Tomizawa added a motor to a device that looks and wiggles like a swimming tuna. He says his fish motor could eventually be better than a conventional propeller.</s>AKIRA TOMIZAWA, INVETOR: I would like to use this fish motor and enable a real boat to travel at speeds of 62 or 125 miles per hour, just like a bullet train. I would like to see it happen.</s>BEUTEL: The 72-year-old former fisherman started researching his fish motor idea when he was 20, using hours of home movies of fish swimming and blueprints of motor designs, Tomizawa chose a tuna for his model. Tunas are fast swimmers, having been clocked at almost 100 miles an hour. Over the years, Tomizawa says he's put up with a lot of skeptics who thought his idea was, well, just a big fishtail. But he says he's undaunted by his failed early experiments, and he thinks success is near. Even some engineers are started to take notice of his invention.</s>YUUSAKU OKA, TOKAIN UNVERSITY: The rotating screw system is easy to control and can produce much horsepower, but repetitive movements are difficult to create, and I think that may be part of the difficulties he's facing.</s>BEUTEL: Tomizawa says he spends his time modifying parts, working on ways to improve performance, and dreaming of the day his fish-powered ship will come in. Allard Buetel, CNN.
Are Fake Fish the Wave of the Future?