Long flat pink worm in poop2/22/2024 ![]() ![]() “Celebrate that squirmy harbinger of good news!” “The presence of the worms in the fish is actually a sign that the ecosystem it came from is healthy and that there is a healthy population of marine mammals nearby,” Wood wrote. In her enthusiastic manner she explained why such a discovery was positive: the typical hosts of this parasite are whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions-animals at the top of the food chain. Given that Wood had told me about the abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and bloody stool I would have experienced had the live worm managed to find its way into my esophagus, stomach wall or intestines, the congratulations seemed odd. Wood went on to congratulate me: “What better way to start off the new year than to find a real live worm in your cod fillet?” Wood’s answer arrived the next morning: Anisakidae, she wrote-probably Anisakis simplex or Pseudoterranova decipiens-a common nematode that spends its larval stage in fish or squid. I knew exactly who to send them to for identification help: Chelsea Wood, a parasite ecologist at the University of Washington-and perhaps the world’s only person who uses words like “beautiful” to describe bloodsucking worms. Before putting it in the compost bin, I snapped a few photos. Like a scene from a horror movie, I watched, entranced, as the serpentine creature swayed its body, dismayed, it seemed, at finding itself ripped from the embrace of fish flesh. What had looked like a bulbous vein began unfurling into a thin squiggle the length of my pinky finger-and it was moving. Removing the splotch with a knife tip, I realized something was very wrong. ![]() I was preparing dinner, portioning a piece of cod, when a small, pink blemish appeared in the pristine white muscle of fish. ![]()
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