Thread: Parasites in Spanish mackerel?

It seems that about one in ten Spanish mackerel that I fillet has one or more little black flecks in its flesh. When I dig it out with my knife tip it doesn't seem to have any structure and (thankfully) it doesn't wiggle. One of the best descriptions of these things is that they sort of look like where you shot a turkey and the #6 shot carried a small feather into the meat.

Does anybody know anything about these black things? They haven't slowed me down from eating Spanish and I feel no ill effects and don't have any urges to chase after barnyard fowl or raise snakes under my hat, so I'm pretty sure they're harmless. Of course, "THEY" would want me to think that...........

I've seen those and wondered about them too.
Kind'a like a tiny blood clot.

Quite common actually.
Some kind of intermediary parasite, hosted by spanish mackerel.
Like you, I just slice the meat, stick the knife tip and turn it to remove.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fi...rus-maculatus/

Parasites
This fish is commonly described as infested with a variety of parasitic organisms. The Myxozoan parasite Kudoa crumenacan be found in the muscle tissue of Spanish mackerel. Cestodes including Callitetrarhynchus gracilis, Pseudolacistorhynchus noodti, and Otobothrium cysticum are also known parasites of this fish. The trematodes Scomberocotyle scomberomori, Pseudaxine mexicana, Thoracocotyle crocea, and Lithidocotyle acanthophallus have been documented as parasites found in the gills of the Spanish mackerel.

Most fish have some level of parasites. Cook them and their fine. Remove anything you see while cleaning.

Good news is that most saltwater parasites can't infect humans, even if you were to eat them raw. Slurp them big fat amberjack worms like spaghetti!... or not

If anybody can correctly pronounce those parasite names, I'll buy them a big mackerel milkshake.

I'm having a good day when I correctly pronounce "parasite" ;-) lol

Originally Posted by Haywire

It seems that about one in ten Spanish mackerel that I fillet has one or more little black flecks in its flesh. When I dig it out with my knife tip it doesn't seem to have any structure and (thankfully) it doesn't wiggle. One of the best descriptions of these things is that they sort of look like where you shot a turkey and the #6 shot carried a small feather into the meat.

Does anybody know anything about these black things? They haven't slowed me down from eating Spanish and I feel no ill effects and don't have any urges to chase after barnyard fowl or raise snakes under my hat, so I'm pretty sure they're harmless. Of course, "THEY" would want me to think that...........

Mr wire , You maybe on to something about those little black flecks , My research has lead me to discover that they are ultra tiny tracking
devices , They were implanted in the fish knowing that they will be caught and consumed by people and once in the stomach the enzymes in the stomach will activate them and will attach to tissue and begin transmitting so you can be tracked , it will also send encrypted DNA information about you . The only way to stop the transmitting is to wrap yourself in HD Aluminum foil , But do so quickly now that this information is out HD Aluminum foil will quickly disappear from the stores , and with the pending import tariffs of metal the Government is planning on a huge profit and keeping you from resupplying .

That explains the black helicopters...

And those long stringy "worms" are actually antennae we insert in the fish to see if anyone is taking over their possession limit back home after a 3 day weekend.
some of the black dots are GPS trackers that feed the data to the antennae.