Hi there brains trust.
For years I have wondered why pictures of big mulloway often show a pink area of bruising on the flanks. In contrast, I have never seen this on underwater footage of NSW/Qld mulloway taken by divers and spearos. I am really curious to see if anyone knows more. I even began to collect images to see if the bruising was limited to one side, or the other, and if it occurred only on largest fish.
Early indications are it is mainly surf-caught, bigger fish, and often down the side toward the vent. See examples below, and the one with a yellow circle.
The only t