A smell reminiscent of high school biology class has been wafting through the building as of late. Thanks to an efficient ventilation system, no room seems safe. The epicenter is on the second floor, where coolers of wolffish stomachs await dissection. To be very clear—just the stomachs. Dr. Elizabeth Fairchild of the University of New Hampshire removed the stomachs from the wolffish specimens last week and now the stomach contents are being analyzed at GMRI. Ziploc bags filled with murky brown and pink sit in a bucket in the sink and GMRI staff wait, gloved and ready, to open them up.

Dr. Fairchild demonstrates the procedure. Stomach contents are weighed; then separated into piles based on prey species. The challenge becomes identifying organisms from the bits and pieces yet to be digested—CSI: GMRI! Fragments of hermit crab shells, scallops, Jonah crabs and other shelled animals are removed from the muck and matched to pictures in a field guide. Pieces of organisms from the same species are piled together and then weighed to determine what percentage of the wolffish’s diet is composed of them. After weighing, the fragments are dumped into another Ziploc to be discarded.

Stomach content analysis is just one part of an ongoing study of wolffish done by UNH and GMRI scientists. Dr. Shelly Tallack, along with GMRI intern Willy Goldsmith, works with Dr. Fairchild to catch, tag, and release wolffish off Stellwagen Bank in the Gulf of Maine. Some of the wolffish are kept and dissected to determine their sex, age, and eating habits. Wolffish are currently a species of concern and fishermen are not allowed to land them—a controversial move due to the lack of data about their lives. Read a blog post about the tagging project by Willy Goldsmith at GoodMorningGloucester.com.

Twelve stomachs and about a gallon of bleach later, the smell (and stomach contents) of wolffish have left the building. The research, meanwhile, continues—more stomachs await dissection.