THE FOOLISH FROST FISH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3004, 11 October 1911, Page 88

THE FOOLISH FROST FISH.

WHY DOES HE LEAVE THE VASTY DEPTHS? AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION. At the conclusion of Dr Malcolm's paper at the Otago Institute on the 3rd on the "Food Value of Frost Fish," Dr Fulton remarked that the lecturer, while stating that these fish were found on the beach during frosty weather, did; not indicate what . was the cause of their getting stranded-en the beach. He stated that he had asked this question once in " Magister's," column in the Otago Daily Times, but had never received a satisfactory answer. • One fisherman had stated that they were driven ut> on the beach by other fish which were seeking to make a meal of them, and that never a frost fish was captured but had marks' on its tail, as if that appendage had been bitten. The doctor said he did not know?* however, whether this was only another fish story. He also remarked that the frost fish was one of the worst infested with parasites of any fish in use for food. Mr Bathgate said he had seen plenty of frost fish which did not bear traces of having been bitten or destroyed. He had been told, however,' that the gulls attacked them. s '. :

Dr. Benham submitted another reason, why the frost fish wanted to get on terra firm.i. . He thought lihat perhaps the fish inhabited very deep water, wher© it had to submit to tremendous pressure. If by any chance the fish_ rose from these depths, it, being released "from the pressure, expandei, and could not get back into its. normal habitat. It practically " sank upward," and got drowned because it could* not get into the depths again. The fish might, in the excitement of the chase, get out of its depth.—(Laughter.) _lt generally got washed ashore vertically—head up and tail down, —and the tail thus dragging on the beach might get knocked about and appear as' if it had been bitten. Parasites on the fish would not do iihe slightest harm to anybody who ate them —cooked or uncooked. They would be digested just the same as the fish.— (Laughter.) These parasites would require a like host on which to thriye. Mr F. W. Furkert asked the rather pertinent question why frost fish only came on the beaches in frosty weather. He had seen them quite uninjured. What was the connection between frost and" the fish coming out of the deep water? The speaker said it was a bit of a conundrum to him, unless it was that when the fish came up from deep water in not particularly cold weather, it could control its bladder; but in frosty weather it could not.—(Laughter.)

Dr Malcolm said he had had only part of a frost fish to experiment on, but he had found in the cutlets an enormous number of small worms, coiled up like watch springs. He suggested that the fish might come up from the deep waters in the night timie—they would be always used to blackness in the deep waters. Thev would not know of daylight. That misrht have some bearing on the question. Mr Bathgate said he was afraid they would bs all getting out of their depth—(laughter)—if they continued,.the discussion aiv.l the meeting then proceeded to the next business.