Ocean Watch
By Susan Scott
People should be very
careful with this fishTwo years ago, I wrote a column about a parasitic catfish called candiru (Aug. 14, 2000). Normally, this narrow little Amazon fish attaches itself to a fish's gills and steals a blood meal. But locals tell nightmarish stories of the fish wiggling up the urethras of men and women urinating in the river and getting stuck there.
I could find no proof that this really happened. Don't believe it, I advised. It's myth.
But I was wrong. An Indiana fish biologist who found my candiru column on the Internet e-mailed me this: "I have recorded a case of a human male attacked by Vandellia [the scientific name of the candiru]. ... Below follows the abstract of my paper for your information. Best Fishes, Paulo Petry, Ph.D."
Paulo's paper and its related Web site are not for the squeamish. They tell the story of a 23-year-old Brazilian man who was indeed attacked by this fish while urinating in a river. The man had severe pain, fever, bleeding from the penis and, according to the google.com translation from Portuguese, "great swell of the stock market escrotal."
Well, we get the idea. The attacking fish measured about 5 inches long and nearly a half-inch across the head. That may be small for a fish, but for a human urethra it's a leviathan.
The urologist's report looks official, but what really convinced me were the pictures. The physician photographed both the patient's ... um, symptoms, and the fish that he pulled from the unfortunate man's urethra. Thanks, Paulo. This story reminds me how important it is to keep an open mind. The urethra fish is not an urban legend, as I thought, but an interesting blend of ichthyology and urology.
Another reader also offered a good postscript to one of my columns. Last year I wrote about the '50s TV show "Sea Hunt," in which the hero's boat was called the Argonaut, as in Jason and the Argonauts. I admitted that I didn't know this Greek myth and looked it up.
About that column, Andy Falcon wrote: "I live in San Diego, and I own the boat used in 'Sea Hunt.' Argonaut is a great boat and has a rich history. I rather enjoyed your article about the history of the name Argonaut. ... I really like how you dug further into the name itself and did your homework, very clever. The producer of 'Sea Hunt' also produced the movie 'Jason and the Argonauts.' That's how Ivan Tors got the name for the boat."
Not all my readers, however, are as charitable as Paulo and Andy about my factual shortcomings. My "Sea Hunt" column also prompted this e-mail from a former Hawaii resident, now living in Canada:
"I couldn't believe that a journalist who can recall "Sea Hunt" had never heard of Jason and the Argonauts." He then provided a reading list for me and suggested I spend some time in my local library. "In the future," he writes, "keep your ignorance about literature to yourself. It sets a bad example for today's kids."
Pretending I know everything sets a bad example for our kids. Rather than remaining silent about my lack of knowledge, I prefer to follow the example of Socrates, who, according to third-century Greek philosopher Diogenes, declared "that he knew nothing except the fact of his ignorance."
For me the best part of writing this column -- and of life itself -- is learning new things. Thanks, everyone, for sharing your expertise.
Marine science writer Susan Scott can be reached at http://www.susanscott.net.
