Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
pretty much the same to my untrained eye—a bit like the sardines from the super-
market canned goods aisle.
The crew knows better. Dumping these three- to six-inch-long fish on a white
sorting table, they tell me that herring have a fatter gut and bluer back than
“chovs,” which have a “stupid mouth,” or overbite. Telling one smelt from another is
trickier—you have to count the number of scales between two of the fins on its
back. In this case, the trawl's silver fish bonanza resolves into 1,400 anchovies,
27 Jacksmelt, 6 Pacific Pompano, and 2 Pacific Herring. At completion, the tray is
awash in clear slime dotted with rubbed-off scales. The slime protects fish skin
from bacterial and fungal infections but rubs off easily when fish are handled.
Next, the muck from the otter trawl goes on the table. Dragging our bare fin-
gers through the heavy clump of mud and algae, we pull out the largest things
first: a baby Dungeness Crab with a distinctive V on its back; a number of Pear
Crabs with long, spidery legs; a pregnant goby fish; and a Plainfin Midshipman
fish. Upside down in a bucket of water, the Midshipman shows off a row of lumi-
nescent photophores, which resemble the gleaming brass buttons of its sailor's
uniform namesake.
Next we push shrimp of all sizes into a corner pile, ignore a bunch of yellow-
and-grey many-legged isopods (the aquatic version of roly-polys), and tease out
several dozen translucent rubbery blobs about the size of a quarter that the crew
dubs “Philine” (pronounced like the name of the movie director Fellini) after their
Measuring a ray. Bat Rays
are most closely related to
sharks, skates, and other
fish with cartilaginous skel-
etons. They feed by flap-
ping their winglike fins
while hovering just above
the bottom. This creates a
vacuum that removes sand
from the surface, exposing
bivalves, worms, shrimps,
and crabs. Their short, flat
teeth, which are replaced
throughout the Bat Ray's
life, grind easily through
shells. (Kathy Hieb)
