What does DMS really smell like? (1 Viewer)

Bluetail · Aug 13, 2004

This may need moving to Ruffled Feathers if the replies get too ripe.

As someone who has never been on a pelagic I have been intrigued by the descriptions of Dimethyl Sulphide that I've read in other threads. If it sends people rushing for the ship's rails it must smell really bad, yet the descriptions I've found on the web make it sound fairly tame. I mean, "over-cooked cabbage" and "tinned creamed corn" don't sound too bad, do they? The worst I found was "rotting marine animal". The worst stink in the world that I can think of is Cantley beet factory in Norfolk. Are you going to tell me I haven't lived?

CJW · Aug 13, 2004

I'm doing a mini-pelagic in the north Irish Sea tomorrow Jason. I have some DMS but am unsure whether to use it or not because of the environmental issues raised by others elsewhere on the forums.
If I do use it, I'll be sure to give you chapter and verse tomorrow evening on my return!
That said, my chum mix is a little ripe and I can't imagine DMS being any more unpleasant. Like you say, over-cooked cabbage doesn't sound too bad (I'm used to it!). That's me in trouble with the Mrs. again!

Darrell Clegg · Aug 13, 2004

Jason,

Imagine opening a dustbin full of week old dead fish that had been steaming nicely in a garage. Then multiply that by 10 and condense the whole lot into a tiny bottle.

You'll be about half way there!!

Darrell

Elizabeth Bigg · Aug 13, 2004

I can remember I nearly brought back my dinner when using an earth closet at a country pub when I was a kid!

Edward · Aug 13, 2004

Darrell Clegg said:
Jason,

Imagine opening a dustbin full of week old dead fish that had been steaming nicely in a garage. Then multiply that by 10 and condense the whole lot into a tiny bottle.

You'll be about half way there!!

Darrell

Darrell, it sounds like you're describing what most Icelanders eat around Christmas time, i.e. putrefying skate. My mate who used to work at the fish factory as a teenager said that when the skate used to come on the conveyor belt they'd sling it into the corner and leave it in a pile. After about 3-4 months they'd say "it's about time we started doing something about that skate." People pay good money for this and it tastes like a tear-gas canister going off in your mouth. If it's left outside gulls and Ravens won't touch it, yet restaurants are full! Nowt as queer as folk.

I've got the DMS on order for our increasingly precarious pelagic next week. I'll see how it compares.

E

Andrew · Aug 13, 2004

Do they use DMS on the Sapphire and Kingfisher off St Mary's (Scillies)? If so then it's nothing really for me but a few were spilling their guts over the side.

mountain man · Aug 13, 2004

It has a really revolting sweet sting to it as well. It just has to be smelt to be believed.

Darrell, have they just recently started using DMS on the Scillonian, cuz I'm sure they didn't when I went before.

I found two excellent articles in August's Birdwatch from 2003 all about chum by Viv Stratton and Richard Porter. Viv Stratton gives the recipe for his own personal favourite chum and Richard Porter enlightens us with a tale of the origins of chum. Lovely. Apparently chum was was originally called "rubby-dubby" but instead of pilchards, some American shark fishermen began to use a cheap type of small salmon known as "chum" and the name stuck ever since.

POP · Aug 13, 2004

"The worst stink in the world that I can think of is Cantley beet factory in Norfolk. Are you going to tell me I haven't lived?"

Jason Wisbech sewage farm took some beating.

John

Darrell Clegg · Aug 13, 2004

tom mckinney said:
It has a really revolting sweet sting to it as well. It just has to be smelt to be believed.

Darrell, have they just recently started using DMS on the Scillonian, cuz I'm sure they didn't when I went before.

.

Tom, I think it has been used since around 1996

Darrell

martin kitching · Aug 14, 2004

CJW said:
I'm doing a mini-pelagic in the north Irish Sea tomorrow Jason. I have some DMS but am unsure whether to use it or not because of the environmental issues raised by others elsewhere on the forums.
If I do use it, I'll be sure to give you chapter and verse tomorrow evening on my return!
That said, my chum mix is a little ripe and I can't imagine DMS being any more unpleasant. Like you say, over-cooked cabbage doesn't sound too bad (I'm used to it!). That's me in trouble with the Mrs. again!

Hi Chris

Can you please point me in the direction of the environmental issues that have been raised? DMS itself should not be an issue as it is a natural part of the olfactory seascape (hence the reason that it can be used to attract procellariformes). The oil that is used as a carrier is likely to be a greater problem. Also, we don't use DMS on our North Sea pelagics because we have used it in the past with NO success (it didn't even attract any common birds) and unrefined cod-liver oil has proved much more useful (the original paper in Nature by Veit et al compared the foraging attractant potential of DMS and cod-liver oil). The smell of DMS? As a professional chemist with many years exposure to it I don't find it too offensive - it smells like slightly 'off' cabbage.

best wishes
martin kitching

plaxtonman · Aug 14, 2004

Martin, this may refer to a strand in 'Scillonian Pelagic - Latest', in which I posted some standard toxicity/safety information concerning DMS, after some members were unsure what the abbreviation stood for, or what the chemical was used for. As far as I know there were no environmental issues raised in that thread though.

Best regards, Steve

scampo · Aug 14, 2004

Bluetail said:
This may need moving to Ruffled Feathers if the replies get too ripe.

As someone who has never been on a pelagic I have been intrigued by the descriptions of Dimethyl Sulphide that I've read in other threads. If it sends people rushing for the ship's rails it must smell really bad, yet the descriptions I've found on the web make it sound fairly tame. I mean, "over-cooked cabbage" and "tinned creamed corn" don't sound too bad, do they? The worst I found was "rotting marine animal". The worst stink in the world that I can think of is Cantley beet factory in Norfolk. Are you going to tell me I haven't lived?

There are many gases produced by decomposing organisms, and those that smell usually contain sulphur. We produce such gases ourselves all the time. I might be wrong, but I recall dimethyl sulphide being a compound that has a smell that is 'genetically determined' - one of only a few chemical compounds whose smell cannot be detected by people with a certain genetic makeup.

You will have smelled it already as it is a part of the typical "seaside smell" that occurs on the coast.

Bluetail · Aug 14, 2004

Thanks very much for the replies. I've got a much better idea now, but I guess it's also something you have to experience in order to appreciate fully.

scampo said:
I might be wrong, but I recall dimethyl sulphide being a compound that has a smell that is 'genetically determined' - one of only a few chemical compounds whose smell cannot be detected by people with a certain genetic makeup.

I wonder if anyone who was on the Scillonian pelagic will own up to having not smelt it?!

craig whitmore · Aug 14, 2004

martin kitching said:
Hi Chris

Can you please point me in the direction of the environmental issues that have been raised? DMS itself should not be an issue as it is a natural part of the olfactory seascape (hence the reason that it can be used to attract procellariformes). The oil that is used as a carrier is likely to be a greater problem. Also, we don't use DMS on our North Sea pelagics because we have used it in the past with NO success (it didn't even attract any common birds) and unrefined cod-liver oil has proved much more useful (the original paper in Nature by Veit et al compared the foraging attractant potential of DMS and cod-liver oil). The smell of DMS? As a professional chemist with many years exposure to it I don't find it too offensive - it smells like slightly 'off' cabbage.

best wishes
martin kitching

Martin: If you run a search on yahoo for< dimethyl sulfide> you will get more hits than you can digest in a week, including some serious papers on it's efficacy in attracting petrels, etc.
I'm in the US and new to the term "pelagics" other than as a class of birds. Could you send me a PM describing your North Sea Pelagics? Also, I guess odors are highly subjective. Could your professional experience been with DMSO, as opposed to DMS?
Craig

What does DMS really smell like? (1 Viewer)

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