Florida man dies in shark attack
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,467
From: Portland, OR
All fish stink to me, but after they are gutted, cleaned, cured and smoked or marinated and grilled they are delicious!
Oh yeah, about incomplete reporting practicing from news media... they always leave the part out where the people shat themselves, but we know better, don't we?
Thread Starter
Super Moderator
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 5,425
From: Tallahassee, FL
If you kill them immediately, whatever process that causes them to secrete nasty stuff through their skin, stops. Or at least that's what seasoned fishermen tell me.
edit: Just did some reading, and nope, I was wrong.
edit: Just did some reading, and nope, I was wrong.
I think I can explain how sharks excrete nitrogenous wastes (i.e., urinate) and how this can give shark meat an ammonia smell and taste.
Like other fishes, sharks excrete nitrogenous wastes over their gills. The teleosts, or bony fishes, excrete nitrogenous wastes in the form of ammonia. Ammonia is a very toxic compound, and excretion of ammonia requires passing large amounts of water over the gills. Marine teleosts replace this water lost to excretion by drinking a lot of seawater and using their gills to remove excess salts.
Sharks, on the other hand, excrete nitrogenous wastes as urea, which is a less toxic compound. A complex biochemical pathway called the ornithine-urea cycle converts ammonia to urea, which can be stored more safely in the blood. In a live shark, ammonia doesn't accumulate because it is quickly converted to urea. When the shark dies, the urea deteriorates back into ammonia, which is why shark meat often tastes and smells of ammonia. Apparently you can remove much of this ammonia by soaking the flesh in freswater or lemon juice before cooking it.
Like other fishes, sharks excrete nitrogenous wastes over their gills. The teleosts, or bony fishes, excrete nitrogenous wastes in the form of ammonia. Ammonia is a very toxic compound, and excretion of ammonia requires passing large amounts of water over the gills. Marine teleosts replace this water lost to excretion by drinking a lot of seawater and using their gills to remove excess salts.
Sharks, on the other hand, excrete nitrogenous wastes as urea, which is a less toxic compound. A complex biochemical pathway called the ornithine-urea cycle converts ammonia to urea, which can be stored more safely in the blood. In a live shark, ammonia doesn't accumulate because it is quickly converted to urea. When the shark dies, the urea deteriorates back into ammonia, which is why shark meat often tastes and smells of ammonia. Apparently you can remove much of this ammonia by soaking the flesh in freswater or lemon juice before cooking it.
Super Moderator
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,763
From: Savannah, Ga
I used to eat a lot of shark that I caught with my dad. Never an ammonia taste, but they would get filleted as soon as we got home, and soaked the fillets in fresh water as soon as it was cut. Never knew why until just reading that last post.
