Work, work work: Q & A

[senoritafish]

To DFG Ask Marine:

I caught an albacore and it had an unusual object attached to it. Pictures and some information are on the following link:

http://www.pierfishing.com/msgboard/viewtopic.php?p=46726#46726

Do you know what this is? If you need more information, please email me at XXXXX@prodigy.net
Also I can mail the object to you if necessary ( its dehydrated now).

Thanks,

An Angler

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Hi, An Angler,

I am by no means a parasite expert, but I think what you have in your pictures is parasitic copepod called an "anchor worm." They are actually crustaceans whose relatives are usually members of the plankton; however, this species lets fish carry it around instead of ocean currents. Since they don't need to swim anymore, as adults they take on this worm-like shape. Apparently, they are frequently mistaken for a fish tag, as you can see illustrated here:

http://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Divisions/FRD/Large_Pelagics/Albacore/parasite_or_tag.pdf

(from an article on albacore tagging by the NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center - http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=FRD&id=1194 )

Interestingly, parasites are often used as living, biological tags; in a similar manner to artificial tags, they can be used to discover where parts of a fish population have been, as certain parasites are endemic to particular areas. Here's a scientific journal article on that subject:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/l7010771r3020161/

Hope this helps,

moi