Week 8 started with a fish

We had a mellow weekend that entailed grilled burgers with friends, some medical training, and another evening with friends again on Saturday.  It was pretty packed, but this time of year is best spent with people as the days get increasingly shorter. 

Then today as I was eating lunch with the kids, one of the parents came in and asked about an under the sea theme.  I was unsure what she had been talking about.  Her reply had baffled me even more.  Well, whatever it is for I gotta get them out of my car before they start to stink.  Only after she presented the tub was I able to put it all together.  Her husband brought in some fish that got tangled up in the net for our examination.  I had been waiting for this moment since getting here in 2010.  In the past, I have let parents know that I was open to any aquatic creature being brought in for dissection.  Today was that day.

Let the picture journey unfold below.  What a cool and unexpected day.

A small shark.  We began the dissection today.

One of my prior students had stopped in after class and told me to be careful with the spikes off of the top of the shark's fins--apparently they are poisonous.  In this position here you can't really see but one of the spikes punctured the table cloth.  I avoided them to begin with due to their scary appearance.  They looked like claw daggers. Maybe later, I can get a hold of some pliers and put them in a jar for further study.   

When I first picked the fish up, there was a huge squishy bulge in its belly.  Feel it everyone, what do you think it is?  Babies, what it ate, they squealed. 

Upon cutting the stomach open, there were 7 small fish and a small eel inside.

In another container were the fish from this photo on.  Later we'll dissect them.  For now I froze them, hopefully the freezing doesn't break down the cells too much and turn them into mush.

Underside of flat fish.

Two squid, a couple minnows and a starfish.

Blob-like fish.  For scale, he is sitting in a 9x13 cake pan.  He looked sort of like a bulldog.

I put the napkin underneath him so that he wouldn't slip out of my hand.  This fish was very slick.  It almost felt like a gelatinous pudding that could be poked through at any time.  The hand feel of this guy was very foreign, it was similar to the inside of one's mouth, yet more slippery.  Notice the wide mouth, I put the end of a spoon in there to pry it open for closer inspection.  I was very cautious with this fish due to the poisonous comment made earlier.