It was the largest specimen of this particular species of icefish that Dr. Thomas Desvignes, from the University of Oregon, has ever seen, and I was about to watch a complex dissection, where they harvest eight parts of the fish for further research.
To many others and me, one of the most interesting things about icefish is that they have no hemoglobin, which in humans carry oxygen throughout the body. Instead, icefish carry oxygen dissolved in solution right in the blood. This causes the blood to be colorless as well as all the organs that the blood flows through.
One of the interesting things being studied about the icefish is how do their eyes work and how do they obtain the oxygen they need without the hemoglobin (more about that in tomorrow's blog). The dissection begins by removing the intestines, which are not used in the experiments, and being careful to not cut into the gonads of the fish, which are the first things that are removed from the fish.
During the dissection, the spleen, heart ventricles (ice fish only have two chamber hearts), kidney, liver, gills brain, and red and white muscle tissue are also removed. The liver, gonads and heart have DNA, RNA, and histological sampling done on them.
Another amazing thing happening with the icefish research here at Palmer Station is not even the primary aspect of research for the icefish. They are mainly being caught for use in a study that looks at how climate change affects the growth and development of embryo’s and fry. There are few icefish to go around, they only caught 48 specimens on the last two day fishing trip, so after the scientists have successfully spawned them there are three other scientists waiting to do research on the icefish.
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