Just like a big, big goldfish

Obviously, sharks aren’t the only fish in the sea. And they aren’t the only fish interested in “free food” on the bottom of the sea. Various other scientists have put in requests for samples for certain species of fish should we pull them up. When we get Red Snapper, Tile fish and various Grouper species we take them to the back deck and once we’re done with the haul the fun begins.
We dissect them to get at and keep certain parts. We check their gonads to see if they’re male or female (a lot of these species turn male once they reach a certain size), and then cut them out and pop them into little plastic bags with formaldehyde so they can be analyzed later, we keep part of the muscle to test for mercury, we keep part of the fin to possible later genetics. Yes, it’s all very gooey and slimy and rather smelly. The things we do in the name of science! We also upon up the gill cavity and go digging for the otholiths – part of the bony structure that can be used to age the fish.

Once we’re done collecting samples, the fish gets filed and there is fresh fish on the menu the next day. The first night we spent working on Red Snapper I was helping with all the dissection stuff and the longer I was looking at the fish the more I realized that it really does look like a 15-20lbs goldfish