Today I learned I should poke the eyes out of dead fish

I encountered the above image on the interestingasfuck subreddit, apparently a sign at a fish-cleaning station at a resort or motel.   I thought it might be a joke, but apparently not.  This was one explanation offered:

"So the eyeballs are buoyant. Might be the eyeballs themselves, but someone said gas builds up behind the eyes in the sockets after the fish dies, but either way, once you take all the filet meat off the fish and toss other scraps, the bony carcass with intact eye balls float. Stabbing the eyeballs makes that carcass sink.

Why do we care about that?

Because floating carcasses tend to decompose on the surface, produce smells, and attract more birds for longer periods of time. This is very unpleasant for anyone living, working, or spending leisure around that dock area. Sinking the carcasses forces the decomposition to happen underwater and feed underwater ecosystems, like other fish, crabs, etc. This is generally good for the water ecosystem and prevenrs smelly carcasses and overzealous gulls and pelicans from swarming the areas, also creating more bird poo, noise, and smells."

All of that makes sense.  When I was a kid and my dad cleaned walleyes at the dock, all of the scraps were just left on the shore for land-based carnivores and eagles and other raptors, or tossed in shallow water by the shore.  Perhaps the need for eye-piercing is more relevant at resorts used by large numbers of fishermen.

Addendum:  The best comment in the thread at the link was by "pop rocks" :

"Do they become Fsh?"

Addendum:  I submitted the post to a family member who runs a campground in northern Minnesota.  This was her reply:

"I think it is illegal to dump minnows and dead fish into the lake.  Plus, It's a major operation to dispose of fish guts.  For years,  we used to collect it in big buckets and hauled it out to the woods in the back of an old, stinky truck.  Then the DNR told us we could not do that anymore.    Now, we need to freeze the fish guts after filleting the fish. We keep a deep freeze in the fish cleaning area up at the bath house. Early on monday mornings,  we need to dump the frozen fish guts into the big garbage dumpster for pick up.  The garbage man only accepts frozen fish guts.    Alternatively,  we have campers who frequently take the frozen fish gut bags home for their garden compost.  "