[flipback1976]

Over the weekend I caught a striper from a beach not the delta and when I was cleaning it, there looked like there was little brown worms embedded in some parts of the meat.My dad who is straight up Filipino and eats anything I catch said not to worry about them and just cut them out. But I on the other hand got a little paranoid after seeing that and wasn't to excited about eating it anymore.

Should there be any concern about eating a fish that has what I found in them?I cut them out like he said and cooked it super long to hopefully kill anything left that I couldn't see. But should I not let my family eat a fish that I find those in?

Thanks in advance...
Flip....

[vitanksi]

Damn. That's odd. Where exactly were the worms? Deep in the flesh, or closer towards the skin? I've seen parasites in striped bass. That completely ruins my appetite for eating them. My dad is Filipino too, and he didn't seem to mind as long as the areas the worms were in got cut out.

Here's from the DFG site about parasites in Stripers

[Iascaire]

If they were curled up my bet would be the Anisakis genus of roundworms. They're really common in most of the bottom dwelling fish, smelt, salmon, and pretty much all other fish we get on the coast... I tend to see a larger concentration of them near the vent, but they'll be spread throughout the meat as well. Cook the fish thoroughly and you'll be fine, though the same may not be able to be said about your appetite. If you pan fry your fish the worms will come crawling out the top of the filet, and yes it is a horrifying as it sounds to see. But as long as you cook it thoroughly it should be fine!

[Mr Anchovy]

Yeah, as long as you cook it good it's just a little extra protein. Can be dangerous if not cooked well. If there's a whole gang of worms, and it just bothers me too much, I might cut out that spot.

Actually, I understand that epitokal worms are eaten as a delicacy in the southern Phillipines. You know how during a pile worm spawn you see them swimming around? They scoop em up and they are considered seasonal delicacies. In other countries/cultures people are not as squeamish as we are in the states. Still, I'm leaving the pile worms alone

[flipback1976]

They were on the inner portion of the fish, hopefully I can paint the picture well.I had cut the fish open from the butt hole up toward the head and pulled the guts and all the innards out.While washing the inside out I saw about 10 or so locations in the inner cavity of the fish that had worms right under the meat of the fish.So I filleted the fish best I could skin still on and with the skin side down you could see them on the portion of the meat facing me.Most of them were closer to the butt hole side of the fillet but a couple were further up.I didn't remove the skin so I don't know if they were on that side as well.But anyways like I said I cut them out like my pops said and cooked them till they reached 180 degrees in the thickest portion of the meat.Everyone still ate them up but I only ate a little of it but it still tasted great, I was just a little hesitant since I knew I cut the worms out of the meat.

[bigunindaboat]

I once took a boat out of monterey for rockfish, every fish had roundworms, these were all deep water fish, mostly vermillion ect.

Today, I had some fried cod from the local market, it is amazing, beer battered, hell of crunchy...

second fish chip had a FREAKEN COOKED ROUNDWORM....ugh even though it was delicious I didnt have the appetite to eat any more.

[tackleholic]

A lot of fish in Sou. Cal have roundworms. Sandbass, sculpin, smelt, some halibut, I've even seen them on occasion in mackerel, and a gut-hooked freshwater largemouth bass I decided to keep from the Castaic afterbay. They're often in a sac coiled up lining the inside of the stomach, or else they're burrowed into the flesh or in the gut. I pretty much clean all my own fish especially if it's from a party boat..I just want to know if they're present. It's almost a given that any rockfish, no matter where they're from, will have them it seems. I caught a nice string of reds last summer off of San Martin Island in Baja, and there were a few in the stomach lining. The lings from the same area didn't have any. The reds weren't too bad,just in the gut lining so I just filleted them out. I've never found a roundworm inside of any tuna or yellowtail fortunately since I love sashimi. I found a live flat worm or fluke in the gut of a wahoo I was cleaning once so I'm a little paranoid about eating those raw. I don't eat sashimi halibut or salmon. It's probally alright because a lot of it is flash-frozen to sub 50 degrees below, which kills any worms, but ya never know!

[bigunindaboat]

Yea there were a bunch in the lings guts I caught a few weeks ago.

Nasty

[cast straight]

After many years of eating fish caught by my parents, friends and myself I have never fell ill to eating fish that I knew contained worms. I've seen them during the cleaning process and as much as you try you just know a few will get by but thorough cooking should eliminate any worm problem. So far no problems either with raw fish but then I am very selective when I do.

[seabass_seeker]

@bigunindaboat that's what beer's for! Best worm chaser ever! Honestly though, I've never noticed em in cooked fish. Sometimes I'll see what looks like cooked blood vessels that are black, but never worms.

From all the sources I've read, the roundworms of anisakis are mildly dangerous. Eaten alive, most of them will pass through the human digestive system. The rare one will find itself in a strange environment, upset it attaches itself and then causes nausea and 'the runs'. If left untreated it passes within a week or two or the doctor can remove it by fiber optic surgery down into your stomach.

They are pretty easy to see. The last halibut we caught had one that I found near the vent/ribs. The last jack smelt I caught convinced me never to keep smelt again, and even if I did I'll never fillet it so that I don't see those nasty things. As they say, ignorance is bliss. Anyone know if top smelt have worms also?

The most dangerous is eating raw or undercooked freshwater fish. They can contain the giant tapeworm larva. Fish exposed to freshwater, such as stripebass, salmon, and steelhead can also carry the larva. If you don't know what a tapeworm is, um maybe I'm not the one to tell about it's "habits." No striper or fresh salmon sashimi for me. I'm curious of 2 things,

1) bear grylls and other outdoor 'experts' have shown on their respective TV shows of them eating raw trout/salmon. Bear grylls does it without scaling or cleaning the fish... Is that right to be telling the general public this misinformation? Or are they correct?

2) the japanese have a famous Carp sashimi where they usually serve the meat back on the body of the fish, sometimes with fish still moving. Knowing the japanese, they must have some special way of raising the carp right? Is there still a problem with tapeworms? Sorry for the rant, just two questions that still bug me.

[dkkim]

Next time you catch a halibut. Check out it's stomach area. Usually tons of worms. I just cut out most of the stomach areas and just cook well.

[illcatchanything2]

Most fish have worms/parasites of some type in them. Cook them thoroughly & you wont have any problems....

[MsCMSchultz]

Didn't someone just post on this or a similar topic? or am I once again doing too much late nite surfing the net?

I recall reading within the last month a post wherein the author explained how his father had taught him to hold up all dressed fish to a good strong light to examine the flesh for parasites. Maybe it was fishsniffer.com?

And that is what I now do--hold all the cleaned fish to the light--all of those things that look like pimples, blood spots, tiny veins--if you take a pair of fine tweezers and poke at them (kinda gross, but i kinda like gross), the worms kinda spurt out like that creature in "Alien" (yeah, i know, i am dating myself).

As soon as those parasites are released, they immediately start thrashing around, seeking a host. One of them got itself entwined around the sieve for the kitchen sink drain. Just for my own curiosity, I kept a few in a dish in the sink to see how long they would last. They were active from about 1500 til i went to bed around 2200. By the morning, they were quite dead.

The problem now is whenever I see something long and threadlike around the kitchen sink, i freak out thinking it's a parasite, when it's actually a hair, vegetable matter, etc.

TMI?

But the reality is, most of the food you consume has parasites, you are just not at the slaughterhouses/processing facility to see what comes crawling out of your meat/fruit/veggies.

[tackleholic]

[turtle]

as long as you cook AND/OR freeze it it will be fine...parasites are in ALL seafood, we just dont always see em.....kingfish and smelt in the sfbay are full of em.....Im also half filipino and my family and I eat most of what I catch.....Dont know if your familiar with kilawin(filipino ceviche), but when we make this dish we freeze the fish first since it is made with raw fish or meat to kill any parasites(most cant handle cold).....so yea, freeze it or cook it thorougly and its all gravy....I think fish are alot safer then groundbeef from a store...