posted by Matsuo, on 21/08/2009

Fish in eggs, Matsura. A

From the account of Shin Hirayama, assistant archivist :

“I found this image in thumbdrive 145 during a routine digital archiving exercise for Professor Matsura’s files. Most of his digital files and reports are accurately named and arranged into folders for easy access and for recalling, but this image was placed alone in a folder titled ‘Miracle’.”

I did a search in our archives and managed to uncover the origins of this peculiar image.

During a joint research trip to the French Alps with our British counterparts, Professor Matsura and the team discovered three fish inside a sealed duck’s egg.

The group had found the egg in a small pond and noticed something moving inside it. They kept the egg and returned to camp, where they cracked open the shell. To their surprise, they found three live minnows in the egg.

There was a brief exchange of emails with several fish experts from around the region but no concrete conclusion could be made from the discussion.

Genetic samples were taken from the minnows and they were later released back into the pond where the egg was found.

The BBC reported this as a 'fish egg miracle’, and thus Professor Matsura named the folder as such.“

The file consists of numerous videos and images taken of the trip by Professor Matsura.

Fish in Eggs, 2006, 1 min. DV. Matsura, A

Fish in eggs, Small pond in French Alps, 2006, Matsura. A