Ink in Flesh

[Needmorerum]

Talking to the old man the other day, they got a big cod of Mackay and when they were filleting it, one fillet come off as normal, the other had an ink that run out of it.
As they were skinning it, half way along, it released a huge amount of black ink. This went all over the fillet, and all over the table. He reckons they looked at each other, then threw the whole lot in the bin. He now wishes he had of kept it and had it checked out.

Any ideas, is this common, any info would be great.

Corry

[Shafty]

Oooh, creepy. Definetly a bin candidate, never heard of that before.

[dasher]

Talking to the old man the other day, they got a big cod of Mackay and when they were filleting it, one fillet come off as normal, the other had an ink that run out of it.
As they were skinning it, half way along, it released a huge amount of black ink. This went all over the fillet, and all over the table. He reckons they looked at each other, then threw the whole lot in the bin. He now wishes he had of kept it and had it checked out.

Any ideas, is this common, any info would be great.

Corry

Corry that is weird mate, the only "guesses" I could think of is if it wasn't bled straight after capture and the blood darkened or whether the stomach cavity was punctured. Would love to know the answer!

[Louis]

I'm at a Loss


Louis

[SeaHunt]

It had an alien baby inside it , should have burned it. ;D

[Fishin_Dan]

Maybe it had eaten a squid....?

[bidkev]

Inkredible!

Inkedible?

;D ;D

Might be some kind of hemorrhage?

kev

[Moffy]

quite common to see small "tumours" in fish from time to time, they are small blackish lumps that when burst release what could best be described as black ink - sounds like you hit one of those - we usually just cut the affected area (and a good bit around it) out.

Moffy

[Billo]

yep ...i have seen the same ...i had also put it down as tumours ..

[bigmack]

So is the tumours in fish common or is it a product of "our" society and how we treat the environment affecting the fish. I know on the Gold Coast that most of the bream in the canals have strange spots on their livers which I think is related to pollution/weed killer/ and other stuff running off the properties etc etc.

is it on the rise or is it normal - also some of the mackerel we catch has a bright yellowish product that comes out of the gut sometimes ...........bile perhaps? I always take care not to let this on the fillets and wash it off if its does.

Great stuff today - worms, ink, tumours, weird stuff - who would eat fish after reading all this today?

phill

[bidkev]

<snip>

Great stuff today - worms, ink, #tumours, weird stuff - who would eat fish after reading all this today?

phill

I hear what you're saying Phill, but don't forget most of the crap that does this to fish comes off the land anyway. The land that produces the crops that we eat and feeds the livestock that we eat.

At least the stuff is diluted when it reaches the fish so eating fish is probably the safer option ;D Not forgetting that a lot of livestock are fed fish meal anyway, so the crap is probably unavoidable.

Only thing we can do is wash it down with liberal doses of a sterilising agent such as alcohol ;D

kev

[scuttlebutt]

Those black "ink sacs" are fairly common in Coral Trout. Just finished filleting a few from yesterday, and two of them had them. They were above and to the rear of the gill plate. Bit of a shock when you hit one with the knife!

cheers,

steve

[dfox]

Corry, ive come across quite a few cases of the ink your refering too and in every case its been a cod that was effected.The fish had verrying quanties of effected areas, they were all healthy fish externally and came from areas on the GBR over 100km out to sea. It sure puts you off eating that particular fish when half way through filleting it, you hit a pocket of the ink! :P
I'd say that although its not overly common, its a natural occuring sympton in some fish and its probably better to just discard a heavily effected fish rather then eat it...foxy

[DICER]

quote from other threadabout worms...

perhaps the dark patched may have been produced by Cryptobia "These parasites have been observed primarily in the stomach, but may be present in other organs. Fish afflicted with Cryptobia #may become thin, lethargic and develop a dark skin pigmentation."

[Richard]

Hi Everyone,

What these sacs are actually caused by is Trematodes (possibly liverflukes). We had a fisherman bring one into work and we ended up getting it analysed by the vet lab.

The larvae stages of the flukes become encysted within the flesh and even thorough cooking is not supposed to kill all the worms so it's probably a good idea that you don't eat the fillet.

Fish are just an intermediate host and the trematodes can't be passed from fish to fish apparently. Something like a sea snail is often the intermediatry host before the fish. It's then passed onto birds (or us) who then spread them further.

The sacs look pretty gross and the ink like substance is jet black which should be enough to put you off eating the fish you'd hope.. Apparently it's not often that harmful to the fish but does make it undersirabe for us to eat.



Anyway, hope that sheds some light on the subject..


Richard

[FNQCairns]

Sushi anyone :o :o :-?

[Needmorerum]

Thanks all for the replies, good to see this isn't an only case. Once again Ausfish has scored a home rum in the information stakes.
I would dare say that most who see this in a fillet would discard rather than eat. I know I wouldn't eat anything. I'm fairly picky with my seafood, hence I try and restrict how many I bring home on a day out so I don't have to worry too much about poisoning the family. It's all about the family you know.

Thanks heaps
Corry

[Volvo]

Corry, Richard hit the nail on the head mate and it is common around our area.Have caught a few with the above and just dump em or quite normally one can see the area affected and just release back into the oggin.
Cheers

[DICER]

Richard - not that I'm an expert in this subject, but how did they validate that this was a trematode species? I suspect that the diversity would be quite high - is this true?

[Richard]

Not sure Dicer but the vet lab (DPI&F) usually do a thorough job. Yeah I'd agree on the diversity thing, but I'm not sure if they actually tracked it down to any one species..

I know there's micrsocopes involved :).

I'll try and track down the report for you if you like. I did read it but it was a while ago now and I can't really remember any of the details.. I'd like to re-read it now too that this thread has popped up..


Richard

[bungie]

http://www.innvista.com/health/microbes/parasite/trematod.htm

[DICER]

Richard - I'd be interested in the report. I have a general interest in the diversity and specificity of particular parasite species versus their host, though it is not directly related to my current work. I generally take a interest in the coevolution of parasite-host relationships or similar issues, but this is about fish - an area I'm not that familiar with.