Photo of the Week

The ‘Otolympics’

Photo: Allison Irwin

But what is an otolith? Some call it an earstone. The otolith is a small structure of calcium carbonate that accumulates throughout a lifetime.  Where humans have an ear canal, fish have an otic capsule that houses, actually, three symmetrical otoliths on each side of its head.  When people say otolith though, they’re typically referring to the sagitta which is the largest one (in most fish) and is usually situated just behind the stem of the brain. Those are the ones we’re collecting during the Coastal Pelagic Species Survey. It takes such a concerted effort to collect them each night that one of the interns, Hilliard Hicks, started calling it the Otolympics!