AT THE headquarters of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Noumea, Elodie Vourey pulls the stomach of a bigeye tuna from a large plastic bag and puts it on a white tray.With tweezers in one hand and a scalpel in the other, the laboratory assistant carves a deep incision into the fleshy organ, revealing the fish's last meal. Inside, a few partially digested fish are mixed with squid and other morsels too mangled to identify without a microscope.
The stomach is one of more than 7000 Vourey and her supervisor, Valerie Allain, have extracted from marine creatures, including sharks, dolphin fish and tuna, then examined, catalogued and frozen. The extensive gut collection forms the basis of Allain's decade-long project to better understand the ecosystem that houses the region's $6 billion-a-year tuna industry.
See full Article: http://www.theage.com.au/world/science/exploring-ecosystems-takes-plenty-of-guts-20120606-1zwel.html
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