True story: He’s Buddhist and prayed/apologized to each one of those things before every take. I’ve never known whether to be impressed by his dedication to his craft or sad for him to go against his beliefs for it.

They look messed up because they came from the high pressure environment in the deep sea to the surface. That’s why some of them have bulging eyes or their guts hanging out of their mouth.

It’s a symptom of decompression aka the Bends.

The gases in the swim bladder (used to regulate bouyancy) don’t have time to adjust to the rapid ascent. The gases expand and inflate the fish from within, causing the eyes and sometimes other organs to pop out.

They came from a deep-sea environment where the pressures are much higher. All of them are showing signs of decompression damage.