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[Morty]

Caught a 6lb doe Chum on Sunday - pretty clean, belliy was still white.  While butchering it for smoking I noticed several white, pea sized, round things in the meat.  They are almost spherical and have a tough outer membrane.  The one I managed to puncture only had liquid inside.

Anyone know what these are?




The yellowish meat discolouration is from brining.

[troutbreath]

Sounds like tapeworm eggs

[redtide]

best not to smoke that particular fish as the low heat will not kill all the parasites. this fish needs to cooked ie oven or deep fried. that way your guaranteed...stay on the safe side.

[Morty]

best I can learn so far is that they are caused by a parasite and it seems to be called Tapioca Disease.  A web search comes up with lots of links but they all seem to be a similar query as mine trying to find out if this is safe.

??

[firstlight]

Freeze the fish for a few days before smoking and it will be fine.

[Morty]

Photos added  (1st attempt at photos, I hope it worked)

[UFC]

The photos don't make it look very appealing

If it was mine I'd probably chuck it, but as others mentioned it may be salvagalbe if handled right.

[gcal]

I would take a pass on it also.   
There are plenty more fish in the ocean/rivers.    It's probably safe for humans to eat, but it looks pretty unappetizing.

[rymack]

You get this quite often in Coho in the ocean in the Charlottes...we used to call it coho disease. They can be prevelant some years over others...for instyance i probably only saw 5-10 coho this year with this affliction where as in years past i have seen 40 -50 in a summer.  You can tell when you catch the fish as it will look like it has pimples or zits on the outside skin as well. Usually just release these fish but if they do make it to the cuttung table i always feed em to the seals.

[Nitroholic]

Just caught a chrome chum with a few of these too. Weird that they were only on the back 1/4 of the fish and all right against the skin. Did a search and came up with some info.

This is from a friend with ODFW and OSU Dept. of Microbiology

Fish Health Fact Sheet
Tapioca Disease
(Henneguya zschokki)

Henneguya is commonly referred to as tapioca disease because
of the large tapioca-like cysts that it creates in the muscle tissue
of fish. The parasite life cycle has not been described however it
probably involves an annelid worm as a secondary host. Fish do
not seem to be adversely affected by the presence of the parasite.
Although aesthetically the flesh may be less than desirable the
parasite presents no risk to humans or domestic animals.

[Morty]

I ended up cooking a piece that I thought was clean, but when I bit into it one of those things burst in my mouth.  Grossed me right out for a couple of days.  I ended up throwing out the rest of the fish.

[FishOn36]

I ended up cooking a piece that I thought was clean, but when I bit into it one of those things burst in my mouth.  Grossed me right out for a couple of days.  I ended up throwing out the rest of the fish.

Gross!! 

[scalper66]

Thats just sick what's wrong with u! I'm goin out tomo u want me catch u a clean one

[marmot]

I ended up cooking a piece that I thought was clean, but when I bit into it one of those things burst in my mouth.  Grossed me right out for a couple of days.  I ended up throwing out the rest of the fish.

BAHAHAHA!  Dude I had the same experience eating cherries as a kid, ate about twenty before realizing that the tiny pinholes on the outside were actually worm boreholes and that the inside near the pit was basically crawling with squirmies.  I didn't eat cherries for over 20 years after that.  I just couldn't do it!  Hope you don't have the same thing with fish   I still get shivers up my spine when i think back.

[gordc]

Have had that experience with cherries as well