White Spot Disease Emerges For 1st Time In Alaskan Wild Salmon - Flesh Stinks, Pimples Cover Organs

[hatrack]

TANANA, Alaska - With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs. "See, it's all of the biggest, best-looking fish," said Pat Moore. "It breaks my heart. My dogs cannot eat all that. The maggots will get them first." More Alaskan salmon caught here end up in the dog pot these days, their orange-pink flesh fouled by disease that scientists have correlated with warmer water in the Yukon River.

With global warming, cold-temperature barriers are giving way, allowing parasites, bacteria and other disease-spreading organisms to move toward higher latitudes. "Climate change isn't going to increase infectious diseases but change the disease landscape," said marine ecologist Kevin D. Lafferty, who studies parasites for the U.S. Geological Survey. "And some of these surprises are not going to be pretty."

The emergence of disease in Alaska's most prized salmon has come as a shock to fishermen and fisheries managers. Alaskan wild salmon has been an uncommon success story among over-exploited fisheries, with healthy runs and robust catches that fetch high prices at fish markets and restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London.

EDIT

A friendly federal biologist advised the local fishermen that they should send samples, including hearts and organs, which were covered with tiny pimples, to the Center for Fish Disease Research at Oregon State University. The Oregon lab quickly identified the problem as "white spot disease," caused by a microscopic parasite called Ichthyophonus hoferi. Ich (pronounced "ick") is a well-known disease, harmless to humans, that was blamed for devastating losses in the herring fishery in Scandinavia.

EDIT

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.salmon14sep14,0,7465452.story

[phantom power]

1. Mmmmmmmmmm.

:puke:

[Indenturedebtor]

2. The same thing is going to happen to us. You think Malaria is gonna stay in the tropics?

There's all sorts of nasty diseases that will spread north... sleeping sickness, malaria, etc.