Seal Bite
 

Have you ever eaten a fish with fresh Seal bite wounds? I pulled this fish out of the kelp, then fought a seal, freespooled multiple times, and chased it until it let go. Thanks Aaron for slamming your kayak paddle on the water, I think that also helped. I cut the gills, and was planning on cutting around the wounds and just cooking it and not eating any sashimi. Have you heard of anyone getting sick from a fish bitten by a seal? Cheers.

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Personally...I wouldn't eat it. Especially if the fish you just caught had a working circulatory system when it got bit....Why take a chance of getting sick? You catch at least 1 fish every outing anyways...just catch another one.

First world problems....sigh!

Google "seal finger" and get spooked.

It's probably cool though, but if you're worried you can always cook it rather than eat poke. Cooking removes all woes except for the ones that yellowtail don't give you (scombroid poisoning, etc.)

Attention Cbadmike:

Do not accept any yellowtail donations from Sully1 today!

Seriously though...seals are wild animals, with all kinds of bacteria and viruses and diseases in their mouth...Chances are you might be fine if you eat it...but why put yourself and family at risk over a yellowtail?

I definitely wouldn't give it to family. I always return any of my uneaten catch / carcass to the sea which seems to bring good karma. Outside of the dogs, nice day on the water this am.

It's probably the appropriate thing to do, It's a shame cause it's a pretty nice fish...

That head would be some excellent bait for the taxman though :reel::cheers1:

The fish is fine. Its not like sea lions are venomous or have mouths like komodo dragons. Any bacteria transferred from the dogs mouth to the fish is at the sight of the bite and will stop growing, or greatly slow down under refrigeration. And will certainly be killed by cooking.

Fish are covered in bacteria. That's why fin cuts n stabs to your hands get so nasty. A gaff penetrating the fish will move bacteria from the skin in to the meat. A fillet knife does the same thing. Enjoy your fish. Mike.

It tastes fine, and I 'm still walking. I 'm definitely cooking it, and won't share this one, now the next one is a different story. . .

I have eaten plenty of fish that sea lions have molested, and so far I'm fine. But there is always the potential for concern as sea lions are mammals and the possibility for disease transfer is real.

That said, and more importantly, returning "uneaten catch to the sea" is something that I hope doesn't happen very often! This is actually illegal, and should never happen. If you are tossing out fish that could have been eaten you need to start rethinking your harvesting practices. That old saying take only what you can use is something that many people forget. Not trying to call you out on this.... just wanted to point this out as I fear it happens far too often in our fishing community which is sad and a waste of resources.

Giving away fish to your neighbors is very similar to throwing out old frozen fish in my opinion. I used to justify killing by giving fish to a few of my neighbors. But I stopped doing this after I learned that most of my neighbors immediately toss the fish into their freezer and FORGET about it... then after a few months they throw it in the trash. I still give some fish away, but only to people that I KNOW will eat it fresh. Freezing fish always leads to waste.

And never give unprepared fish to people that ask you either how to cook it or how you like to cook it. They are the ones most likely to waste it, in one way or another.

True story here

My co-worker kept asking when I was going to give him some lobster so one day I hooped on a Thursday night and got was fortunate enough to get my limit, the following morning I stopped by the office and dropped off a cooler with 7 live bugs.

About 3 seasons later

co-worker: Hey, what's the best way to cook lobster?
me: why? did you buy some lobster?
co-worker: no, I found some lobster in my freezer
me: is that the same lobster that I gave you awhile ago?
co-worker: yeah, I forgot they were in the freezer

No worries about seal bites. Just fillet around it. The freezing process then cooking kills just about any bacteria. If you get sick shoot just wasnt your day. Good seeing you the other day. Congrats on the fish and the other new addition. Patrick.

:doh::lobster::lobster::lobster::lobster::lobster: :lobster::lobster:

Invite the mother in law over and make her dinner, if she makes it to the next day you can feed it to the family