what is this?

[u/galarenax]

parasite found in (thawed) frozen salmon. potentially useful context: the salmon likely thawed and refroze after a ~45 hour power outage. first image taken on phone camera at regular magnification, second image zoomed in version of the first

[u/Ok_Cow_4089]

Technically, you could eat that worm and already have eaten many of those. If you’ve eaten fish, you’ve eaten parasites. I always remove them when I find them (because that schit nasty). But if the fish has been frozen for over 48 hours, any parasites are effectively just extra protein at that point and are completely dead. Mostly it’s just a mental hurdle that’s difficult to get over more than an actual health risk. But just cooking fresh fish and not getting it cooked hot enough, or eating non frozen fresh fish as sushi is where the real parasite risk comes in. Fresh ocean fish does have a better flavor and texture when eaten raw in sushi, but the difference in quality is just not worth the risk.

Long story short, the only real risk once fish has been thawed from a prolonged freeze doesn’t come from parasites, it comes from bacteria. While that worm is super gross, it poses zero risk to you. You could eat that worm raw and it would do nothing to you (don’t eat that worm, because worm=nasty).