• A TikToker said he bought salmon at Trader Joe’s that looked like it still had a fin attached to it.
• Oliver Brenner showed off the piece of salmon on TikTok.
• Some users were freaked out, but Brenner said “he’ll always stand by Trader Joe’s.”

A TikToker said he bought a salmon fillet from Trader Joe’s that looked like it still had a fin attached to it.

Oliver Brenner, a 22-year-old video editor and creator with over 95,000 followers on TikTok, showed off a salmon fillet he said he purchased from Trader Joe’s in a clip posted on Wednesday. As of Friday, the TikTok had over 5.9 million views and more than 5,000 comments.

Brenner started his video by addressing “whoever is in charge of cutting salmon at Trader Joe’s” and telling them they needed to get it “together” because he said he found a fin attached to his salmon fillet. He proceeded to lift the salmon to the camera, showing off what appeared to be a small fin sticking out of the skin.

“I understand that it’s a fish, OK, but there’s a reason why I’m buying it from Trader Joe’s,” he said, joking that he would expect a fish he caught out at sea to look like a fish, but not one that he bought at the grocery chain.

Trader Joe’s did not respond to a request for comment.

Brenner told Business Insider he bought the salmon from the Kettering, Ohio, location of Trader Joe’s close to where he is based in Dayton. He also said he’s convinced the piece of skin poking out of the salmon was a fin.

“I definitely believe it was a fin,” he said. “This was my first time seeing an abnormal piece on my salmon from Trader Joe’s, and I am a frequent buyer.”

Brenner said he never considered returning the fillet, opting to simply remove the fin and the rest of the skin before cooking it.

“Seeing that it is a fish and that fins are part of their anatomy, I didn’t see a reason to return it,” he said.

Nevertheless, Brenner’s discovery left some TikTok users in total shock.

“Skin on fish is bad enough…but a fin? I would not be able to eat for days,” one user wrote in a comment that has over 3,600 likes.

“No because I would be so scared to eat it,” another wrote.

Among the comments were some left by users who said they’d forgotten where store-bought salmon comes from.

“Not me never even considering that salmon have fins at one point,” one user wrote.

“Why’d I gasp like I’ve never seen a fish,” another chimed in.

The same day he posted his original video, Brenner shared a follow-up video on TikTok saying he returned to Trader Joe’s to buy the exact cut of salmon fillet as a test. His latest salmon-related TikTok had over 21,800 views as of Friday.

“I am not going to give up on my girl Miss TJ just like that, so I came back to Trader Joe’s again today,” he said, adding that salmon is one of the only things he can eat since he’s on a cleanse.

But when he returned home to open the salmon, Brenner said he found what looked like a piece of loose skin or part of a fin attached to the new fillet.

“Y’all, I can’t even make this shit up,” Brenner said.

“I don’t really know what that is,” he added. “But I know that it’s not supposed to be there.”

Even though Brenner seemingly had the same fishy experience twice, he told BI it hasn’t deterred him from returning to Trader Joe’s in the future or from buying fish at the grocery store.

“I will always stand by Trader Joe’s,” he said. “If the piece was a fin, then it’s not that big of a deal because, at the end of the day, it is a fish.”