Mysterious "Tattooed" Fish Caught In Phillipines

Escapee from a fishy Folsom? Harbinger of the deep come to announce the awakening of Cthulhu? Hoax? Or something else entirely? As with many odd news stories coming from Southeast Asia, the details are a bit scarce but the pictures are certainly intriguing.

The story has been picked up in the last day or so by a number of mysterious subject matter related sites, blogs and the UK tabloid, Daily Express but the original news source appears to be the GMA News (who seems legit), via a post on their Facebook page. The photos were credited to Hero Peewee Bacuño whose Twitter feed I tracked down. On it, I located his tweet from May 5th containing the three pictures that are circulating along with the following text:

Isang isda na animo'y may mga tattoo ang nahuli ng mga mangingisda sa Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental.

Which Google translates to:

A fish that appear to have tattoos caught by fishermen in Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental.

Lopez Jaena is located on the northern part of the most southern major island of the Phillipines, Mindanao. It's unclear what has become of the fish though some sources (without attribution) claim it was cleaned and presumably ended up on somebody's dinner table. I hit the photographer up on Twitter to see if he knows what became of the specimen. I'll report back if he responds.

Now that we've got that all out of the way, without further ado, here are the pictures:



One hypothesis that I've read that seems most reasonable to me is that the fish came into contact with some sort of material bearing the design that resulted in discoloration. I imagine this could have been the product of the transfer of some sort of dye or a chemical reaction of some sort. I don't know much about fish biology but I'm wondering if this couldn't be an elaborate tan line?

While hunting for the source of the images, I did discover that people actually do tattoo fish — aquarium fish — but the results don't really resemble what we see here. From Wikipedia, Painted Fish:

There are a number of methods for introducing artificial colour into fish.

Dyes

A common method of creating "painted fish" is through dye injection via syringe. Generally, fish are injected multiple times.[1] Fish may also be dipped in a caustic solution to strip their outer slime coat, then dipped in dye. These methods are reported to have a very high mortality rate.[2]

Many varieties of "colour-enhancing" foods for aquarium fishes are available to the consumer. Generally, these foods contain natural dyes, such as beta-carotene, and are not harmful to fish, although as with other dye methods, the effect is temporary. One source reports that harmful dyes are sometimes used by wholesalers, however.[2]

Lasers

Fish can also be tattooed using a low-intensity laser with a dye, a process developed for fisheries by scientists, but now applied to ornamental fish.[3]

Hormones

Hormone administration can sometimes increase colouration, although it can also render female fish infertile.[4]

Here's a PSA from the National Council of SPCAs discouraging the purchase of "painted fish" which I've selected because it shows a variety of examples:



Thoughts?

Cool!

Even has a backwards Iron Maiden font!

Obviously this fish has become wrapped in some sort of packaging and the print has transfered onto the fish!

Fish feel no pain, therefore no suffering. They're nervous system does not work that way( nervous system and lateral lines and such). Needless to say that fish is weird and I mean weird in a possible uncanny macabre voodoo like way.

Study suggests fish do not feel pain.

I can't help but wonder what was on the part they had sliced off near the tail and if it had been an important clue to answering a few questions.

All in all though , very interesting. Still trying to wrap my mind around people tattooing their fish.... gezzz louise

I was thinking the same thing like, damn, someone hacked off the artist's signature.
It sure looks deliberate.

originally posted by: onehuman
I can't help but wonder what was on the part they had sliced off near the tail and if it had been an important clue to answering a few questions.

All in all though , very interesting. Still trying to wrap my mind around people tattooing their fish.... gezzz louise

That is the result of placing rice paper on the fish once it has been caught. This particular rice paper must have had a design....Rice paper is often used by fishermen on Pelagic species to keep the color of the skin in tact. This keeps the fish color intact for the fish market.....basically makes the fish look better.

Like this



Fish when caught are beautiful but fade as they die.....

They really light up when eating..

a reply to: theantediluvian

How about stencilled? Dead fish, a stencil and a can of silver spray paint.

It's the only method that makes any sense to me after staring at each image for a few minutes.

a reply to: onehuman

More likely just a tail fillet given out to someone as a sample or even cut on the boat to identify one sailfish from another.

originally posted by: onehuman
I can't help but wonder what was on the part they had sliced off near the tail and if it had been an important clue to answering a few questions.

All in all though , very interesting. Still trying to wrap my mind around people tattooing their fish.... gezzz louise

That's likely where they bled the fish. The caudal vein is in that area and the clotted blood in that area looks like they were tail bleeding the fish. You don't usually take a chunk out, but the fish may have tail flipped while the fisherman was cutting, or possibly the chunk of meet held a hematoma from the tail bleeding cut and removing it from the carcass retards decomposition. (blood is the great spoiler of meat, including fish. If you want your fish to stay fresh, you bleed them while they're still alive.)

If I was a betting man, I'd say this fish was the fist fish of the day and was laid in a dry well (or the bottom of a boat) on top of a newspaper spread out to keep the fish from coming in contact with the boat (which would be for one of two reasons: 1. Nobody wants their wooden boat soaked with fish blood and slime. 2. if it isn't a fiberglass or wooden hull, metal can and will both flavor the meat and speed decomposition of the fish.) The fish's side was in direct contact with newspaper, laying on the newspaper transferred the image onto the fish as the fish and the paper dried out a bit.

I've had similar (though nowhere near this clear and crisp) transfers of color onto salmon from using newspaper before. It's why I only use butcher paper or plain brown paper bags when I'm processing fish. Nobody wants a salmon fillet with a full color Cal Worthington Ford ad transferred onto it's side.

Doing a search, some said Aliens, others Fukashima, while others were clueless. The fish quickly disappeared. Snopes had nothing to say as Hoax's go....

Where to go with this one... ?
Stars.

originally posted by: onehuman
I can't help but wonder what was on the part they had sliced off near the tail and if it had been an important clue to answering a few questions.

All in all though , very interesting. Still trying to wrap my mind around people tattooing their fish.... gezzz louise

The chuck out of the tail was most likely to check the actual meat for burn...When you fight a fish hard they obviously pump a lot of blood fighting you back. A lot of time of red meat fish like Tuna they are immediately gilled and hearts removed when they hit the deck so can't continue to pump blood into their muscle and flesh...If a fish is not prepared correctly when they hit the deck than can become what the called "burned" and will not be as valuable as a fish that was properly maintained...A lot of Tuna fishermen are not using conventional rod and reel these days in a attempt to not burn of the fish. Less fight time means better fish meat...

Now days they just use lift poles....no fight.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: theantediluvian

How about stencilled? Dead fish, a stencil and a can of silver spray paint.

It's the only method that makes any sense to me after staring at each image for a few minutes.

I thought that also, considering if this was a tat; something that elaborate would take hours and hours.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: theantediluvian

How about stencilled? Dead fish, a stencil and a can of silver spray paint.

It's the only method that makes any sense to me after staring at each image for a few minutes.

The silver is the fish's natural coloration. As the skin dries out a bit and the slime production stops, the ends of the scales lift, creating a darker, duller looking fish. I'm wondering if newspaper ink acted as a binder or maybe a moisture trap compared to the the non-inked part of the sheet. This would have kept the scales down anywhere that was in direct contact with ink while the scales not contacted by ink raised. (I'm doing a poor job of explaining this. Next time you catch a fish, run you fingernail backwards against the grain of the scales and see how you leave a dark line across the fish, then run your nail along the same line with the grain of the scales and notice the dark line goes away. That's the mechanical process that could create something like this.)

Any idea what kind of fish?

It doesn't like look like a scaled fish, more like a fish with skin - like a catfish. That might make a difference.

wow thats wild. It looks dyed to me. Probably a transfer like someone else said. Are the letters reversed or is that a different alphabet?

a reply to: burdman30ott6

If you compare the colour of the two fish side by side, it's the darkness they have in common. The apparent pattern is silver in colour.

I'm not ruling out your explanation because there's not enough information. The images aren't large enough to really study either. You could be right.

On the other hand, it's a big fish and whatever might have been used to wrap it would be bigger than an average sized newspaper. Looks about 24" going off the guy's arm in the first image.

Puzzler!

ETA - I take it back on the size. Perspective and all...

originally posted by: ketsuko
Any idea what kind of fish?

It doesn't like look like a scaled fish, more like a fish with skin - like a catfish. That might make a difference.

It's most likely a sail fish or small white marlin....Hard to tell without his dorsal/sail extended.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: burdman30ott6

If you compare the colour of the two fish side by side, it's the darkness they have in common. The apparent pattern is silver in colour.

I'm not ruling out your explanation because there's not enough information. The images aren't large enough to really study either. You could be right.

On the other hand, it's a big fish and whatever might have been used to wrap it would be bigger than an average sized newspaper. Looks about 24" going off the guy's arm in the first image.

Puzzler!

It is hard to tell without seeing the entire fish. And the one on the right already appears to be processed or in the process of being processes lol.

If they are the same fish what you're seeing is the difference between a fish that had rice paper or news paper to preserve the color and a fish that was just stuck in the ice box and left to go grey....If rice paper is not put on the fish they grey out in 10-20 minutes after catching them.

Its some sort of heraldry , with shield . I doubt an aripima would just let that happen, they can be very dangerous at that size , Robson Green found that out

originally posted by: GuidedKill

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: burdman30ott6

If you compare the colour of the two fish side by side, it's the darkness they have in common. The apparent pattern is silver in colour.

I'm not ruling out your explanation because there's not enough information. The images aren't large enough to really study either. You could be right.

On the other hand, it's a big fish and whatever might have been used to wrap it would be bigger than an average sized newspaper. Looks about 24" going off the guy's arm in the first image.

Puzzler!

It is hard to tell without seeing the entire fish. And the one on the right already appears to be processed or in the process of being processes lol.

If they are the same fish what you're seeing is the difference between a fish that had rice paper or news paper to preserve the color and a fish that was just stuck in the ice box and left to go grey....If rice paper is not put on the fish they grey out in 10-20 minutes after catching them.

One reason I suggested a stencil is the uniqueness of the image. Have any of us ever seen an example like it? It's not typical news print and looks more like Art Nouveau in the styling. ZIPMATT says 'heraldry' and it has that look too.

The pattern is artificial. Other than that, I don't know the answer.