If you’re a 7th grader here at West now, you didn’t get to dissect fish last year. This year, the 6th graders were able to dissect fish in their science classes.

 “I had a pair of surgical scissors and gloves… I cut up the middle from the waste opening toward the head then turned up before the gills and cut back down the side of the fish before turning back toward where I started,” Mr. Fisher stated, “Basically I took a square patch of skin off.” 

 “I left the insides in with the exception of the one patch of skin as we were looking at the internal structures.” The fish was also the only female and had a very large egg sac. 

Something I was wondering, Do fish insides differ depending on the fish species or look relatively the same?  Mr. Fisher answered, “When comparing bony fish (fish with a skeleton like lake trout, perch etc.) they look very similar. However when you get into different fish like the sea lamprey they start to look very different.  For example bony fish have a stomach where a sea lamprey does not.” If you’re wondering what a sea lamprey looks like, scroll all the way down. 

What did the class do with the fish when they were done?  “When my class was finished Mrs. Culbert’s class used them then we disposed of them responsibly.” Reusing fish… I never thought I’d type that. 

The science department obtained the fish from Activate Learning, the publisher who wrote our current curriculum. The 6th-grade curriculum is new this year, which is why the current 7th graders didn’t dissect a fish.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The question you might have been asking… Did any student have to leave the classroom because it was gross? “No, I had a couple students who didn’t want to look at the fish or touch them in any way but no one had to leave or got sick.” I would have not wanted to touch it. 

Would you have touched it or not even wanted to look at it?

This is a sea lamprey. Yes, it really looks like this with those teeth.