We've all seen fish with those little-black spots on 'em, but Ashley Scanlon's ultra-freckled pike caught our eye:
It's called "neascus" or the super-original name of "black spot disease." You can
learn a lot about it -- and other sciencecy stuff -- from Gord Pyzer:
> "The black spots are small cysts in the fish's skin. In a heavily-infected fish you'll find them sprinkled in the flesh as well. If you inadvertently happen to eat one, they're crunchy -- like a speck of sand or a piece of pepper corn.
[We'll take your word for it!]
> "A fish-eating bird (eagle, osprey, great blue heron, kingfisher, gull or cormorant) consumes an infected fish and the black spots -- which are tiny-encapsulated worms called
trematodes -- mature inside the bird's digestive system.
> "Once they mature, the worms lay eggs which the bird passes into the water in its droppings. The eggs then hatch into microscopic organisms called
miracidia that have about 24 hours to find their next host -- typically a snail."
> "There the parasite develops into its next life form, emerging from the snail as a tiny creature called a
cercariae. When this parasite burrows into a fish, the fish reacts by encrusting the little bugger in a cyst with black-pigmented melanin.
> "The black spot can survive in the fish's flesh and skin for many years, while it waits for the fish to be eaten by a bird, so that the process can repeat itself once again.
> "Literature suggests that the parasites neither affect the fish, nor humans that may eat them. I'm betting that like me, you'll pass on eating either of these pike for dinner."
Think you can you remember all that next time your buddy asks?
