 Ocean
Watch
Friday, November 22, 2002
People should be very
careful with this fish
Two 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. |
