With hydropower, overfishing, climate change and pollution on the rise, monitored populations of migratory freshwater fish species have plummeted by 76% on average since 1970, according to the first comprehensive global report on the status of freshwater migratory fish, issued this week by the World Fish Migration Foundation and Zoological Society of London.
The report states that migratory fish, such as salmon, trout and Amazonian catfish, are vital to meet the food security needs, as well as support the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. They also play a critical role in keeping our rivers, lakes and wetlands healthy by supporting a complex food web. Now, their populations are under immense threat from human-made impacts and require urgent action to halt and then reverse the alarming decline.
“Migratory fish provide food and livelihoods for millions of people but this is seldom factored into development decisions,” Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead, said. “Instead, their importance to economies and ecosystems continues to be overlooked and undervalued – and their populations continue to collapse “The world needs to implement an Emergency Recovery Plan that will reverse the loss of migratory fish and all freshwater biodiversity – for the benefit of people and nature.”
Migratory fish are invaluable to human health and the global economy. Fish and fish-byproducts represent one of the world’s most traded products within the food sector. The recreational fishing industry alone is worth billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. Overall, the figures represent the need for more protective measures for migratory and freshwater fish worldwide.
“Catastrophic losses in migratory fish populations show we cannot continue destroying our rivers,” Arjan Berkhuysen, Managing Director of the World Fish Migration Foundation said. “This will have immense consequences for people and nature across the globe. We can and need to act now before these keystone species are lost for good.”
Migratory fish in Asia have been on a catastrophic decline as well, according to study co-author Zeb Hogan. He leads the USAID-funded research project Wonders of the Mekong that is studying the Mekong River system to help governments maintain a balance of economic vitality and food production. He’s been studying migratory freshwater megafish on six continents for 25 years, is a United Nations Convention on Migratory Species Councilor for Fish and an Ambassador for World Fish Migration Day.
Catastrophic Declines in Mekong River Fish Population
“This report does not include fish from the Mekong River because time series data was not available yet, but the decline has been catastrophic,” Hogan, a fish biologist in the College of Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, said. “However, Teresa Campbell an ecologist with the University’s Wonders of the Mekong project, recently published a study on the conservation status of several migratory Mekong fish and the results of her study support the findings of this global report.”
Published last month in the journal Water, the study showed that several of the giant species of migratory fish in the Mekong have almost disappeared. For example, the Mekong giant catfish is on the brink of extinction in the wild. The authors conclude that species conservation strategies should be developed and must address pervasive illegal fishing activities, alongside habitat degradation and blocked migrations, to recover declining populations.
The Mekong River runs through six Southeast Asian countries and is home to some of the world’s largest freshwater fish species, which are highly migratory and extremely vulnerable to dams and overfishing. Wonders of the Mekong scientists are studying the river system to help governments maintain a balance of economic viability and food production. To put that threat in context, an estimated 40 to 70% of food fish in the Mekong are migratory and more than 60 million people depend on the Mekong River for their livelihoods and food security.
Habitat degradation, alteration, and loss account for approximately half of the threats to migratory fish. Wetlands are essential habitats for migratory fish species, but, globally, wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests, while dams and other river barriers block fish from reaching their mating or feeding grounds and disrupt their life cycles.
“Rivers and migrations are the connective tissue of our planet – and migratory fish are bellwethers for not just rivers, but for the countless other systems they connect, from the deep sea to coastal forests,” said Jeffrey Parrish, Global Managing Director for Protect Oceans, Land and Water at The Nature Conservancy. “Losing these fish means losing so much more,” “By factoring in these species and systems into sustainable energy and food production, and by investing in their protection and restoration, we can bring them back.”
Nevada Unlikely Home to Chinook Salmon
While Nevada is known for its abundance of desert terrain, Nevada was once home to chinook salmon, the largest of the Pacific salmon species. They migrated up the Columbia River to the Snake River and then into northeastern Nevada in the Owyhee, Bruneau and Jarbidge rivers and Salmon Falls Creek – all major tributaries of the Snake River.
“More than 9,000 miles of river and streams in the Columbia River watershed are now inaccessible to migratory fish because of dams,” Hogan said. “These are fish that were once crucial to the survival and livelihoods of people living along the Columbia River.”
For centuries, the tens of thousands of Pacific salmon swam hundreds of miles up the rivers and tributaries to spawn.
Native Americans caught and ate the Columbia Basin chinook along the Jarbidge River in Nevada more than 2,500 years ago. People migrated to northeastern Nevada to ranch and mine in the 1800s and salmon were a key part of the fish and game trade that supported the region's communities.
Salmon migrating from the Columbia Basin vanished from Nevada after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation closed the gates on Owyhee Dam in December 1932. Three massive Hells Canyon dams were added to the Snake River between 1958 and 1967 further sealing the fate of the salmon in Nevada.
Elsewhere in northern Nevada, the iconic migratory and now endangered Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, which can grow to 60 pounds, faced large declines due to development and human impact.
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout once made epic mass migrations, turning the Truckee River red from Pyramid Lake to Lake Tahoe. They can no longer migrate, and several northern Nevada Native American Tribes, working with federal and state agencies, have been working to build the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout population throughout the watershed.
For example, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke ground last year to begin installing an 80-foot-wide by 390-foot-long horizontal fish screen at the 110-year-old Derby Dam on the Truckee River. The 23.3 million project, the nation’s largest horizontal fish screen, will restore watershed connectivity and promote recovery of the trout.
Hogan said there are several actions people in Nevada and across the country can take to protect migratory fish, and freshwaters more generally:
manage flows in rivers (like the Truckee) to benefit migratory fish,
The U.K. has some of Europe’s most fertile fishing zones, and its fleet hauls the EU’s second-largest catch annually. Fisheries were a sticking point in the U.K.’s initiative to join the bloc in the 1970s, and British fishermen have lamented that their sector was sacrificed during negotiations to meet other trade goals. In recent years, more than half of fish and shellfish caught within 200 miles of the U.K. coast was landed by other EU countries. The resolution of this fight could have implications for other sectors, notably banks.
2. How could this affect banks?
Fisheries are not being negotiated as a standalone industry: slides from the European Commission show that the EU wants to use the issue as a bargaining tool in the context of wider trade talks. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who led the government until a grand coalition was formed in June, warns that without an accord on this issue, the U.K.’s financial services firms may not win the deal they want with the EU. Speaking to the BBC in January, Varadkar said: “You may have to make concessions in areas like fishing in order to get concessions from us in areas like financial services.”
3. How will this unfold?
In advance of Brexit coming into force at the end of this year, the U.K. is planning its departure from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, which means foreign boats will need to obtain fishing licenses and abide by British rules. The European Commission has cautioned that a post-Brexit U.K.-EU trade agreement must include a fisheries accord, and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged that Britain will maintain control of its waters. The bloc has signaled that it is prepared to back down from its demands to keep the same access to British fishing waters it enjoys today -- but it’s unlikely to make that concession until much closer to the October deadline for a deal. Barrie Deas, chief executive of the U.K.’s National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said after a meeting with the U.K.’s Brexit Chief Negotiator David Frost that “there will be no sell-out. Fishing is an absolute priority for the U.K.”
4. How closely tied are the U.K. and EU?
Upwards of $1.5 billion is sold each way annually, according to Rabobank. U.K. waters supply the fish for Holland’s herring habit; consumers on the European mainland have an affinity for the salmon farmed off the shores of Scotland. If Europe curbs buying, the U.K. could also see a shellfish surplus. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic, which have British overseas territory status, are a major supplier of squid to southern Europe and it’s unclear how Brexit talks may affect those shipments.
5. What’s at stake?
Though the fishing industry isn’t vital to the U.K. -- representing just 0.1% of the British economy -- its long-term decline has contributed to the challenges facing coastal communities. The EU has accounted for at least 64% of the U.K.’s exports since 2010, according to data compiled by Rabobank. Though both sides have diversified trade with other countries, they’ll want to keep fish flowing across borders and avoid clashes between ships at sea, as occurred in the so-called cod wars waged by Britain and Iceland between the 1950s and 1970s.
6. How far has the U.K. industry declined?
The U.K. home fleet landed 948,000 tons of fish in 1970, shortly before the country joined the EU. By 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, that had more than halved to 415,000 tons, according to government statistics. Over the same period the number of British fishermen dropped to 12,000 from 21,400. Indications are that fishing communities voted strongly for Brexit, expecting restrictions on boats from Europe to reinvigorate their business. British fishing associations say the government should emulate Norway, which annually negotiates access to its waters and bars boats from countries it doesn’t have a deal with.
7. Which EU countries are most affected?
Countries most closely involved in the EU’s fishing talks with the U.K. are Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. While EU rules have permitted all member nations to fish in each other’s waters, those are the states whose waters are closest to those of the U.K. or whose fishermen are most extensively around the U.K. coast. They have been pressing for the issue to form part of wider negotiations over the trade pact between the U.K. and EU, rather than being dealt with in isolation.
8. What’s the U.K. political backdrop?
Johnson’s Conservative Party received strong support in the December 2019 election from fishing communities who signed up to his “Get Brexit Done” message, from Milford Haven in western Wales to Brixham on the English Channel and eastward to the North Sea port of Grimsby, where a Tory candidate won for the first time since World War II. Johnson pledged after the election to “work flat-out” to keep their backing, adding to pressure to deliver a deal the fishing industry will be able to welcome. Johnson repeatedly told Scottish voters he would protect their fishing industry, taking back control of its waters and contrasting that stance with the pro-EU policies of Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party.
9. What about Ireland?
Ireland’s fishing fleets make about 34% of their catch in British waters. Not only does Ireland risk losing some of its access to such important fishing grounds, it also faces greater competition in its own waters from EU vessels. Former Irish Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Michael Creed is on record saying its fishing industry “would be decimated if we don’t get the proper outcome from Brexit; it would be calamitous.” Ireland is playing a pivotal role in the wider talks between the U.K. and EU over a future trade deal, reflecting its close trading links with both sides, but it has a particular stake in the outcome of the fishing negotiations.
While most major events around the Kenai Peninsula have been canceled this summer due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers of the Seward Silver Salmon Derby said “fish on.”
The Derby will run from Aug. 8 to Aug. 16 of this year. Kat Sorensen, communications director for the Seward Chamber of Commerce, told the Clarion Wednesday that the biggest differences participants can expect this year will be the lack of in-person interaction and an emphasis on keeping distance between anglers.
“Luckily fishing is one of those sports that’s socially distanced in and of itself,” Sorensen said.
First, all participants will have to purchase their tickets online rather than in person by going to ssd.seward.com.
The weigh-in station will have signage and markings in place to keep people at least 6 feet apart as they bring their catch to be weighed. All derby volunteers will be wearing masks. Participants will be encouraged to wear masks.
The derby will offer prizes daily in a number of different categories. Anyone who lands one of the salmon that were specially tagged ahead of the derby, the biggest fish of the day or the biggest one in the whole competition will win prizes that include cash, airline tickets and more.
People have the option of fishing from shore, on a boat or in a kayak, with different prizes awarded for each method. Prizes are also divided into men’s, women’s and youth categories.
For the full rules and more information on the derby, visit salmon.seward.com.
Reach reporter Brian Mazurek at bmazurek@peninsulaclarion.com.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Researchers in the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering have been awarded $426,285 from the United States Army Research Office (ARO) to probe how to use fish-inspired robots to sense and perceive underwater environments.
“Swimming might seem very simple in the animal world, but the movements and sensing are extremely complex,” said Bo Cheng, the Kenneth K. and Olivia J. Kuo Early Career Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We want to find out how fish are able to use the fluid dynamics that surround them in the water not only for swimming, but also for perception.”
These findings have the potential to enhance biologically inspired robotics that can glean more information in in shallow, murky underwater environments where visual and sonar systems are difficult to use.
“The idea is inspired by what animals can do,” Cheng said. “Fish and other aquatic animals are able to sense the fluid around them and tell what’s going on. In the long run, we want to develop a very systematic framework to mimic how they sense changes and control their motion efficiently to move within their fluid environment.”
Along with Asok Ray, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering and mathematics, Cheng is leading the three-year project.
“Essentially, we will use sensors around the fins and bodies of swimming robots and these sensors will measure the pressure and the forces acting upon the surfaces of these robots,” Cheng said. “The key scientific question will be: with these measurements, how can we extract information about the fluid environment?”
For instance, fish can perceive the smallest changes in pressure, such as a fisherman casting a line on the surface of the water.
“Fish are able to detect these small vibrations or any changes in the fluid state very quickly and react,” Cheng said. “That is something we want to achieve with robots.”
To gather this information, the team will combine two machine learning systems, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). By coupling these deep learning techniques, the researchers will be able to extract both temporal and spatial measurements to detect other objects and simultaneously control the motion of the robot.
“We are planning to collaborate with the corporate research center of General Electric on this project. This collaborative research will focus on a synergistic combination of different aspects of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the setting of neural networks (NN),” Ray said. “A long-term goal is to develop NN-based methodologies for solving nonlinear partial differential equations to provide faster and more accurate solutions as compared to the state-of-the-art numerical techniques.”
The research will also probe whether fish use specific movements to improve their sensing capabilities.
“For instance, we want to know, if the fish does something like flaps its tail, does that self-generated motion actually enhance their sensing capability or does it decrease it?” Cheng said.
With funding from the ARO, these insights into nature have the potential to one day benefit military operations that would occur in shallow water environments, such as search and rescue missions.
“Dr. Cheng’s proposed research provides a novel method for extracting information from the fluid flow that could enable robotic systems to work effectively in murky environments where current optical and acoustic sensors are not adequate,” said MaryAnne Fields, program manager, ARO, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. “This work will benefit not only the underwater applications that Dr. Cheng describes, but it may enable aerial robots to maneuver in complex, poorly lit environments by using pressure differences to sense and react to nearby entities.”
Looking ahead, the Penn State team hopes that developing the fundamental knowledge in this area will guide and inform the technology for effective underwater robots.
“But before we can replicate it, we need to understand it,” Cheng said.
A new report finds that migratory freshwater fish species have declined on a global scale by 76% since 1970, with the highest drops experienced in Europe.
The biggest threat to migratory freshwater fish is habitat degradation or alteration, such as dams, culverts and road crossings, while other threats include habitat loss, overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
The authors of the report recommend taking actions to help restore migratory freshwater fish populations, including the restoration of free-flowing rivers by removing dams and other obstructions.
Migratory freshwater fish are in big trouble. According to a new report, monitored populations of migratory freshwater fish have dropped on average by 76% since 1970, which is a higher rate of decline than among marine and terrestrial species.
The report, published this week by the World Fish Migration Foundation, is the first global assessment of migratory freshwater fish species. Using information from the Living Planet Index project, run by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, the report draws on data from 1,406 populations of 247 species from regions across the globe. However, it notes there was deficient data for Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America.
Sockeye salmon migrating in Canada. Image by Michel Roggo / WWF.
“The 76% average decline in migratory freshwater fish is one of the worst we’ve found in our work but we think migratory freshwater fish might be in even greater peril than that,” Stefanie Deinet, lead author of the study, told Mongabay in an email. “Adding currently missing information from tropical regions where threats of habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, and climate change have been increasing, will surely bend the curve of loss downwards not upwards.”
A freshwater migratory fish is defined as a fish that travels between critical habitats to spawn or feed, either using freshwater exclusively or partially. This includes catadromous fish, such as European eels (Anguilla anguilla), which migrate downriver to the sea to spawn, and anadromous fish, such as Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus), which travel upriver from the sea to spawn. There are also amphidromous fish, like mountain mullets (Agonostomus monticola), that move between saltwater and freshwater, although not for breeding purposes, and potamodromous fish, such as white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), which migrate exclusively within freshwater systems.
On average, the biggest threat to freshwater migratory fish was obstructions to free-flowing rivers, such as dams, culverts and road crossings, which prevent fish from accessing locations required for food or breeding purposes, according to the report. Other threats include habitat loss, overfishing, pollutants, invasive species, disease, and climate change.
Migratory fish in Juruena River, Brazil. Image by Zig Koch / WWF.
The biggest decline in migratory freshwater fish was found in Europe, which has experienced an average 93% decrease, while Latin America and the Caribbean followed closely behind with an 84% drop.
With millions of people depending on migratory fish as a food source, declines could lead to global food security issues, the report suggests. The loss of migratory freshwater fish in aquatic systems could also have dire consequences for the environment.
“Rivers and migrations are the connective tissue of our planet — and migratory fish are bellwethers for not just rivers, but for the countless other systems they connect, from the deep sea to coastal forests. Losing these fish means losing so much more,” Jeffrey Parrish, global managing director for the Protect Oceans, Land and Water program at The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement. “By factoring in these species and systems into sustainable energy and food production, and by investing in their protection and restoration, we can bring them back.”
Small, migratory food fish on drying racks on the shores of the Tonle Sap River, Cambodia in 2003. Image by Zeb Hogan / WWF.
At the end of the report, the authors make several recommendations to help restore global populations of migratory freshwater fish: allowing rivers to flow naturally; restoring river connectivity through better planning of dams and other structures; curbing overfishing; reducing pollution; controlling invasive species; and protecting the critical habitats that species depend upon.
“To address declines, we need to restore and protect these species and their habitat, and ensure that the barriers to their migration are removed and flow regimes are restored,” Deinet said. “We also need to ensure that we don’t over-consume, reduce our carbon and plastic footprint, and take seriously the need to address climate change. To achieve this, we need to engage with both policy-makers and the public.
“If we do nothing, we run the risk of ever smaller populations of these species, and of eventually losing some of these species too,” she added. “This would not only threaten an important source of food and income for millions of people but also have knock-on effects on the ecosystems on which migratory fish depend.”
Banner image caption: A migratory freshwater fish swimming up river. Image by Petteri Hautamaa / WWF Finland.
Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a staff writer for Mongabay. Follow her on Twitter @ECAlberts.
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Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:
Question: I was recently kayaking on Lake Julian, and during my time on the water I ran across a dead fish. I know from previous articles in the paper that Duke energy has switched from producing electricity from coal burning to natural gas, and that significantly lowers the water temperature in the lake. Those articles also indicated that there would be a large number of fish of a certain species that would die because of their inability to live in hot water. Has that major die-off occurred as expected? Or because of our summer temperatures is it yet to come? How will the county handle the die-off, as this is a park? Or will Duke have to do a cleanup? How much will the temperature drop?
My answer: In other news, tilapia is on special at Ingles. Forever.
Real answer: So yes, the tilapia are the fish that do not fare well in colder water temperatures. And when Duke made the switch to natural gas and the lake temperature dropped, well, they did not enjoy the change.
"The transition of Lake Julian to a more natural state, consistent with other lakes in the region, eliminated the non-native species like tilapia, which could not adapt to the colder conditions of the lake," said Duke Energy Regional Manager Jason Walls. "These species could not naturally evolve here, but rather were introduced by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission."
The good news is other fish are doing fine.
"Even without the non-native fish in Lake Julian, the fishery will continue to thrive with species more appropriate for this region, including large mouth bass, channel catfish, brim and crappie," Walls said.
Yes, I know some people spell "brim" as "bream." Let's not let this divide the nation as so many other topics have these days.
It's also important to remember that Lake Julian never has been a natural body of water.
"Lake Julian was built in the early 1960s by Carolina Power & Light, a predecessor of Duke Energy, for the sole purpose of providing cooling water to support the operation of the coal-fired power plant," Walls said. "Warm water was discharged from the coal plant to cool in Lake Julian, resulting in warmer temperatures throughout the lake."
So when Duke retired the coal-fired plants earlier this year, the warm water flowing into the lake stopped, meaning it's not running at a more normal temperature for mountain lakes. This time of year, most mountain lakes are in the 80s.
Buncombe County's Recreation Services Department manages Lake Julian Park, and Director Josh O'Conner said the die-off was a one-off incident, "as the major die-off occurred earlier this year after the initial temperature change."
"It was difficult to gauge the total numbers impacted," O'Conner said. "We had a few — two-three 'pockets' — of 20-30 dead fish that appeared during the winter months as a result of currents within the lake," O'Conner said. "We did not experience a long period of die off and had relatively limited customer feedback about the event because of the season."
Duke handled the fish clean-up.
"I verified with staff, no additional sightings or complaints have been received this summer," O'Conner said.
Question: Several readers asked me about Sinclair Broadcasting and its plans to air an interview with the widely discredited scientist featured in the documentary "Plandemic." Some readers suggested Sinclair, which owns WLOS-News 13 here in Asheville, was going to air the actual documentary. At any rate, folks wanted to know how WLOS was going to handle this. In the interim, Sinclair decided to pull the interview with the scientist.
My answer: I'll note that I had to set down my hydroxychloriquine/bleach margarita to answer this question, and that was almost as inconvenient as wearing a mask for 20 minutes in the grocery store.
Real answer: WLOS General Manager Joe Fishleigh handled this one.
"First a few corrections: the interview with Judy Mikovits was scheduled to air on 'America This Week,' not on WLOS News," Fishleigh said. "America This Week is a show that airs across our parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s resume of stations but is not connected to our local newscast."
Fishleigh also stressed, "There was never a consideration for ATW to air the 'Plandemic' documentary, only the aforementioned interview."
"According to our corporate news director, those plans no longer exist and that interview with Mikovits, who has been widely discredited, will not air," Fishleigh said. "We are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. Commentary and opinions are indeed allowable under our license."
"I must add that the commentary and opinions expressed on America This Week are not necessarily shared by our staff locally," Fishleigh said.
This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com
A Pennsylvania angler fishing out in front of Fair Haven in Cayuga County won the $10,000 grand prize for the 2020 Lake Ontario Counties (LOC) Trout and Salmon Derby, which ended Sunday.
Donald Stacknick, of Dalton, Pa., won the check for catching a Chinook salmon on July 18 weighing 30 pounds, 6 ounces trolling over 120 feet of water off of Fair Haven in Cayuga County. He was fishing at the time with friends Cody and Reese Scott. He caught the fish using a Pro Troll flasher and cut bait.
The derby began June 27 and featured $32,250 in cash prizes. Prize money included $1,000 for the winners of each division (Salmon, Brown Trout, Lake Trout and Walleye). Awards of $400 and $300 were given to second and third place finishers. There was also $1,000 week prizes awarded for the largest salmon each week and $500 for the largest fish in the other divisions. See the LOC Derby website for a complete breakdown of cash prizes.
The awards ceremony was held Sunday at Captain Jack’s restaurant in Sodus Point. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the wearing of masks and social distancing were required. Only first and second place finishers and witnesses to the catches in each division were required to show. Other winners will be mailed their checks.
Winners in other divisions included:
*Salmon: Cynthia Culverwell of Ransomville, N.Y. won the Salmon Division with a 29-pound, 12-ounce Chinook weighed in at Bootleggers Cove. Cynthia was fishing aboard the All-In and caught it on a Wire/Spin Dr/N&D cut bait combination.
Cynthia Culverwell of Ransomville, N,Y. with her 29 lb 12 oz Chinook salmon.
Brown trout: Marc Skirvin of Henrietta, N.Y. won the Brown Trout Division with a 20 pound, 1 ounce fish. He weighed it in at The Port of Rochester. Marc was aboard the Cash Auto and caught it on a Trilene/Warrior combination.
Marc Skirvin of Henrietta, N.Y. with his 20 pound, 1 ounce brown trout.
Lake Trout: It’s been a good LOC Derby for Captain Richard Nau of the Praying Mantis and the Lake Trout Division. John Rosenswie of Smethport, Pa. weighed in a 24-pound, 9-ounce laker at Woody’s Tackle in Pulaski while fishing aboard the Praying Mantis to win the division and the $500 weekly award.
Rosenswie’s fishing buddy, Richard DuBois held the previous lead with a 23 lb 3 oz laker, also caught with Captain Nau the day before.
John Rosenswie (left) of Smethport, Pa. won the lake trout division with his 24-pound, 9-ounce laker, which is being held by Captain Richard Nau (center) of the Praying Mantis. Richard DuBois (right) held the previous lead with a 23 lb 3 oz laker caught the day before.
Walleye: Mike Daily, of Sacketts Harbor, N.Y. won this division with a 12.01 pound walleye he caught on a Reef Runner lure. He weighed it in at Henchen Marina in Henderson Harbor.
YOUTH DIVISION:
Brown trout: Bobby Mallory of Baldwinsville, N. Y. won the Youth Award in the Brown Division with a14-pound, 14-ounce beauty weighed in at Hughes Marina in Williamson. He was aboard Persistence and caught it on a Torpedo/Michigan Stinger combination.
Bobby Mallory of Baldwinsville, N. Y. with his 14-pound, 14-ounce beauty.
,Other Youth Division winners included: Parker Kohlback of Sandy Creek (Walleye, 9.08 pounds), Cody Milanese of Balston Spa (Salmon, 26 pounds) and Dominic Shombs of Lexington Park, Md. (Lake Trout, 19.04 pounds).
The LOC Fall Fishing Derby kicks off Aug. 21 and lasts until Sept. 7. That tournament features a total of $67,400 in cash prizes, along with a $25,000 cash prize for the largest salmon.
The high levels of mercury in the Brazilian Amapa region are being caused by illegal gold mining, according to a researcher from the country's World Wildlife Fund office
Nearly one-third of the fish in the Brazilian Amazon state of Amapa have such high levels of mercury caused by illegal mining that they are dangerous for human consumption, according to a new study.
Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Brazil office and three Brazilian research institutes found startling levels of mercury in more than 400 fish collected in five regions of Amapa, on the border with French Guyana.
The research included fish from included river systems near environmentally protected areas.
"The level surpassed safety limits in 77.6 percent of carnivorous fish, 20 percent of omnivores and 2.4 percent of herbivores," they said in the study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
"Four of the species with the highest concentrations of mercury are among those most widely consumed" by humans in the region, it added.
Eating more than 200 grams (seven ounces) of those species could be harmful to a person's health, it said.
The high levels of mercury in the region are being caused by illegal gold mining, said conservationist Marcelo Oliveira of WWF-Brazil.
"This study brings to light damning data on the level of destruction being caused by illegal gold mining in the Amazon," he said.
"We already knew it was destroying the forest. Now we know how it is destroying the health of those who live there, too."
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces criticism for pushing to open up protected lands in the Amazon to mining and agricultural activity.
Activists say that will only accelerate the destruction of the world's biggest rainforest.
Citation: Study finds dangerous mercury levels in Amazon fish (2020, July 30) retrieved 30 July 2020 from https://ift.tt/30edO0m
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fish.indah.link Despite UniSea’s strict mitigation plans to protect against COVID-19, public health recommendations like mask-wearing and social distancing were tossed out the window during last week’s evacuation. (Hope McKenney/KUCB)
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit south of Chignik last week, prompting tsunami warnings in communities across coastal Alaska.
As community members across the Eastern Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula got alerts to get to higher ground, fish processors in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor — the nation’s top fishing port in terms of volume — had hundreds of plant employees to evacuate.
And for some, the evacuation went smoothly. But for others, even receiving the tsunami warning was problematic.
The city — which purchased the equipment in 1996 — said only three out of the seven sirens distributed across the two islands, which make up the community of Unalaska, are working.
For processing plants like UniSea — one of the largest seafood processors in the world — which is located near one of the three working tsunami sirens, Tuesday night’s evacuation went down without a hitch.
“I think we did pretty good over here,” said Ron Kjorsvik, director of Alaska operations at the large Japanese-owned company. “I think the siren helped because I think people take it a bit more seriously when they hear it. If you don’t have that siren, people don’t know if it’s real or if it’s just a drill. So I think the siren most definitely helped us out down here, for sure.”
Around 700 employees were evacuated during the warning, Kjorsvik said. They went to higher ground on a hill right behind the processing plant, after company officials received a tsunami warning notification first from the state, and then local authorities.
Kjorsvik was woken up by alerts on his cell phone and a plant security guard knocking on his door. They immediately went to notify the 300 people on shift at the processing plant to get to higher ground. And as the tsunami siren next to the facility sporadically went off, officials proceeded to activate fire alarms and bang on doors, notifying the remaining 400 people off-shift in company housing or wandering around the island. The employees walked directly up the hill and waited until the warning was called off in the early morning hours.
“We have a drill every season to show our people where they go, so it’s a fairly smooth process once you get everybody up,” Kjorsvik said. “Of course, in the middle of night, there’s challenges with waking people up and getting people to believe it’s an actual event and not just a drill. But all in all, it went really well, for us anyhow.”
But for other processors in Unalaska not located near a functioning tsunami siren or a hill to evacuate to, the notification and evacuation process didn’t go quite as smoothly.
“We received some positive feedback, others have communicated some concerns,” said City Manager Erin Reinders. “We’re working through the feedback that we received and trying to close the loop to make sure that we improve over time.”
Reinders wouldn’t comment on which processing plants in Unalaska complained about the city’s notification process during the evacuation. Some processing plants claimed that the city’s unreliable message alerts and faulty tsunami sirens made quickly evacuating hundreds of employees from sea level to higher ground extremely difficult.
While four out of seven sirens aren’t currently operational, Reinders said the city made sure to institute a “multi-pronged approach” to get word out to the community and processors. That approach included Nixle emergency alerts, tsunami sirens, and fire and police personnel driving through neighborhoods with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
“Obviously, it’s a more effective notification system if all the tsunami sirens are working 100 percent. But as always, it’s a layered approach,” she said.
As Unalaskans and processors made their way to higher ground to wait out the warning, Kjorsvik said public health recommendations like mask-wearing and social distancing were tossed out the window.
“I would guess about 85 to 90 percent of the people were still wearing their masks,” he said. “There were a few of them that either forgot their mask in their room, and that’s just kind of the price you pay I guess at this point in time in life.”
Given the circumstances, Reinders said the immediate threat of the tsunami took precedence over the risk of contracting the coronavirus.
“As a community or as families or as companies, we are all having to rethink how we work,” she said. “And now, you know, we also need to rethink how we respond in cases of emergency when we are also within the confines of a pandemic.”
Early Wednesday morning, NOAA’s National Tsunami Warning Center said the tsunami was no longer a threat, and warnings were called off in communities across coastal Alaska. Only Sand Point — the first community predicted to be impacted — recorded a wave less than a foot tall.
In the end, even though it was a false alarm, Reinders said the city is conducting further tests to evaluate what’s wrong with the island’s tsunami sirens so it can get all seven back up and running.
“I’m thankful that in the end it wasn’t an overly eventful night,” she said. “Other than waking up and evacuating, I’m glad that nobody was injured, and there was no major tsunami. But it certainly does serve as a reminder that we are on an island in the Bering Sea and the Ring of Fire, and earthquakes occur, and tsunami threat is there, and we need to remember that.”
White perch are a perfect species to target while fishing with your kids. Dylan Tawney caught these two nice white perch while fishing with his family. Photo by Andrew Tawney
Hot and dry weather continues across Maryland. These conditions put heat-related stress on the summer striped bass population, especially in the upper Chesapeake Bay. We ask anglers to focus their fishing on early morning hours, or target other species during the heat wave. Throughout Maryland’s warmest months, the department’s onlinestriped bass fishing advisory forecastprovides a seven-day outlook to help anglers reduce striped bass mortality during the summer fishing season.
On July 30 at noon the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is hosting our fourth Maryland Fishing Roundtable webinar on summer fishing. This week, the Maryland Fishing Report team — includingMaryland recreational fisheries specialist Erik Zlokovitz,Tom Parham of DNR’s Eyes on the Bay, and biologist Steve Doctor — will give tips on fishing in the Ocean City area.You can join the discussion through a link onthe department’s online calendar.
All anglers can feel free to send any pictures of your catches to fishingreports.dnr@maryland.gov for possible inclusion in our fishing report or the dailyAngler’s Log.
Forecast Summary: July 29 – August 4:
Expect another repeat of the last few weeks with warm, sunny skies, a chance of thunderstorms, and low winds most of the week.Main Chesapeake Bay surface water temperatures have risen to the mid 80s or higher. These warm waters and corresponding low oxygen areas are appearing from Swan Point down to the mouth of the Potomac.
These hot, calm conditions will continue to warm surface waters and limit oxygen being recharged to the deeper waters by wind mixing, increasing the chance of algal blooms. This will result in gamefish remaining at similar locations on cooler river mouths or main bay structure but moving to slightly shallower depths, just above theDon’t Fish Below this Depthmark andmaximum suitable oxygen depth, in the coolest water available.
The coolest, oxygenated water is found in the deeper waters from Pooles Island down to the Virginia state line. The other way to find cooler water is to fish the shallows at first light when surface water temperatures can be several degrees cooler. As always, best fishing areas could be further refined by intersecting these cool, oxygenated areas with underwater points, hard bottom, drop-offs, and large schools of baitfish.
Expect reduced water clarity from algal blooms along the upper western shore rivers including the Bush, Back, and Gunpowder rivers. In addition, water clarity in the upper Patuxent and Wicomico rivers and Colonial Beach will also be reduced from algal blooms.To see the latest water clarity conditions, checkEyes on the Bay Satellite Maps.
Expectnormal flowsall week from most of Maryland’s rivers and streams. There will be above averagetidal currentsall week as a result of a full moon Aug. 3.
For more detailed and up-to-date fishing conditions in your area of the bay, be sure to check outClick Before You Cast. Get regular updates on Maryland’s waters sent to your inbox with our Eyes on the Bay newsletter.Sign up online.
Upper Chesapeake Bay
Richard Thompson caught this huge 47-inch flathead catfish recently while fishing with his son. Photo courtesy of Richard Thompson
The Conowingo Dam remains on a late afternoon power generation water release, with low flow in the mornings due to abnormally dry conditions. The area below the dam is one of the best places in Maryland to target large flathead catfish; fish up to 55 pounds have been caught here in the past two years.
Fishing for blue catfish continues to be very good at the Conowingo Dam and in the lower Susquehanna River and other tidal rivers. Channel catfish are abundant in all of the region’s tidal rivers. Catfish can be caught on fresh cut baits, soft crab, chicken livers, clam snouts, and worms.
White perch should provide steady action in the upper bay into August and September. Many anglers are finding a lot of small perch in some areas but a few big fish can be found with time and effort. The usual small spinners, spinnerbaits, and 1/16 to 1/8-ounce lead heads with Mr. Twister grubs on light spinning tackle all catch fish. Pieces of bloodworm, grass shrimp, wild seafood shrimp, and small minnows are all good baits, especially when fishing around docks and pilings. Medium-sized minnows fished under a bobber around shoreline structure will often catch a large grade of perch.
The usual bottom fishing areas for saltwater panfish — spot, perch and croaker — should be productive during the next few weeks. Spot and white perch can be found on hard bottom areas, shell bottom, oyster bars, or shoals off Sandy Point State Park beach, the mouth of the Magothy, Bay Bridge pilings, and the Severn River. White perch can also be found at the Snake Reef, Belvidere Shoal, and the 7-foot and 9-foot knolls. We continue to see small croaker in the Severn River, South River, and other areas, but most are sub-legal. Hopefully these small croaker under 8 inches are a good sign for the future of the fishery.
We are asking anglers to avoid targeting striped bass during this heat wave. However, if you do target striped bass, remember that you mustuse non-offset circle hooksat all time when chumming or livelining. We also advise using lures with single, barbless hooks to make releasing fish easier, andcare must be takenwhen handling fish. Never use a rag while unhooking a striped bass — this will rub off their protective slime layer, making them more vulnerable to the summer combination of heat stress and disease.
Middle Bay
This cutlassfish (also known as ribbonfish) was caught by Bird Dog Wheeler in the Miles River. Photo by Karen Starkey
Bottom fishing action for both spot and perch can be found at Hacketts and Thomas points on shell bottom and bars, as well as around Eastern Bay, Poplar Island, and the Severn and Choptank rivers. Small bluefish and spanish mackerel should be moving into the area, with the combination of hot and dry weather and salinities being relatively high. Anglers are hoping for a repeat of last year’s action on Spanish mackerel, which extended all the way to the upper bay.
Speckled trout action continues from the Choptank River south along the Dorchester County shorelines, and down into the Crisfield area’s marsh shorelines and cuts. Grass beds in 3-5 feet of water and stump fields are excellent places to cast swim shads, paddle tails and other plastics on lead head jigs. Gulp plastics and soft plastics in pearl or white with sparkles are popular.
In addition to the presence of speckled trout and puppy drum in the shallows, other “oddball” species will show up in the middle bay during summers with moderate to high salinities.
Fishing for white perch in the shallower shoreline areas should be steady from now into September. Shoreline structure such as bulkheads, submerged rocks, fallen trees, and riprap are good areas to cast small spinners, spinnerbaits, and jigs. If you are fishing with kids, remember that white perch and spot can also be caught off of docks and piers in 5-10 feet of water with a simple one-hook or two-hook bottom rig baited with pieces of soft crab, bloodworm, or grass shrimp. Synthetic bloodworm-flavored fishbites also work well.
A mix of blue and channel catfish should continue to provide steady action for anglers fishing with cut bait, chicken livers, soft peeler crabs, and other baits in most of the tidal rivers within the region. Channel catfish can be found in every tidal river, and blue catfish are found mostly in the Choptank and Nanticoke rivers.
Lower Bay
This large red drum was caught and released by Ed Long. Photo by Travis Long
Cobia fishing is still a good bet at the Middle Grounds, the Target Ship, the Mud Leads, and Point Lookout. The traditional methods are chumming and fishing with cut bait or live eels. In past years, anglers have also caught large cobia with other live baits such as spot and small bluefish. Sight fishing with live eels or large soft plastics on a lead head jig is a trending new method that started in Virginia. This requires using an elevated platform to spot fish, and polarized sunglasses to cut through the glare on the water.
Toby Frey caught this big spotted sea trout that was just under 24 inches long. Photo courtesy of Toby Frey
Trolling spoons and hoses (surgical tube lures) will produce both cobia and large red drum around the Target Ship, with bluefish in the mix. Large red drum are also being caught and released by anglers who are light-tackle jigging with soft plastics.
Small bluefish are moving into the region; they are running about 1 pound, which is fun for the kids and a perfect eating size, fresh or smoked. As a reminder, the daily limit is 3 bluefish per day for anglers fishing from private boats or shore, and 5 bluefish per day when fishing from a charter boat. Spanish mackerel should keep moving into the lower bay and are being caught by fast trolling — about 7 knots is the target speed — with small Drone or Clark spoons.
Spot and white perch should provide steady bottom fishing action in the hard bottom areas of the lower Patuxent River, Honga River, and off Hoopers Island. Pieces of bloodworm on a bottom rig is the best bait for spot.
The shallow-water fishing for speckled trout continues with soft paddletail baits near shallow grass beds along the Eastern Shore marshes. Soft plastics and paddletails work best over deeper grass, shoreline structure, rocks, riprap, wood, and stump fields. The best speckled trout fishing is occurring along the marshes of the Pocomoke and Tangier sounds up to Hoopers Island.
There is some action for bottom fish and small bluefish along the western shore and Point Lookout area and into the lower Potomac River. Also be ready with metal lures in case Spanish mackerel show up on the surface. Striped bass can often be part of the mix, however anglers need to be aware that the main stem of the Potomac River is closed to all striped bass fishing from July 7 to Aug. 20 byorder of the Potomac River Fisheries Commission.
Recreational crabbing should improve as we move into early August, with more crabs growing to legal size. The middle and lower bay offers the best opportunity to catch a bushel of crabs per outing. Trotlining at dawn is the best method, and razor clams tend to be the most popular bait in recent seasons. Work the 12-foot to 15-foot edges to find the crabs.
Freshwater Fishing
Young angler Lachlan Ewing caught this nice common carp on a worm in Liberty Reservoir. Photo by James Ewing
We expect trout streams in western Maryland to continue running low and clear until the current drought conditions subside. As usual, this will require finesse fly-fishing techniques with long casts and light tippets. Small terrestrial fly patterns such as ants, beetles, and hoppers are good choices.
The upper Potomac River will continue running low and warm until weather patterns change. Target fast-moving and deeper waters for smallmouth bass, and cast grubs, small crankbaits, and tubes. There is also some topwater fishing along grass edges and shallows with buzzbaits and poppers at dawn and dusk. Department biologists have been supplementing natural reproduction of smallmouth bass in the freshwater Potomac to enhance the fishery.
Lewis Rawlings caught this bass and several others on a spinnerbait at the pond at Indian Creek Natural Resources Management Area. Photo by Eric Packard
Currently, there is a multi-state collaborative effort that is trying to determine the effects of angling for muskellunge during thermal stress. Anglers should use caution when targeting, catching, and handling muskies. As water temperatures in the river rise, the resident muskies will be stressed and will be resting in slightly cooler waters in feeder creeks. In these conditions, muskies cannot survive catch-and-release stress and should not be targeted.
Carp should provide steady summer fun in the upper Potomac, C&O Canal, and various ponds with the traditional baits of scented dough ball baits or corn. Fly casters can catch carp with purple flies that resemble mulberries in areas where the berries fall into the water from overhanging branches.
Farm ponds, reservoirs, rivers, and impoundments offer fun fishing for largemouth bass. Ponds and small lakes can be fished from shore with a variety of weedless soft plastics, including plastic worms, flukes, and lizards in grass, lily pads, or near sunken wood structure.
For anglers targeting northern snakeheads, lures such as buzzbaits and frogs are excellent baits to cast over thick grass. Chatterbaits and paddle tails will also attract snakeheads. The tributaries of the tidal Potomac, Patuxent, Patapsco, and other tidal rivers around the Chesapeake have expanding populations of northern snakeheads. For anglers targeting snakehead in central Maryland, try Little Seneca Lake at Blackhills Regional Park. On the Eastern Shore, the Dorchester County tidal backwaters — tributaries to the Nanticoke and Wicomico — are consistent hotspots.
Blue catfish are always a good bet for boat anglers using cut bait in the Fort Washington area of the Potomac. Goodplaces for blue catfish in the Patuxent River are along steep channel edges above Jacksons Landing, Jug Bay, and the mouth of Western Branch.
The tidal Potomac River is an excellent place to fish for large blue catfish from shore. Fort Washington allows access to the Potomac and is a safe place to take kids fishing. National Colonial Farm has a pier that is easy to reach and there is more limited shoreline fishing at Marshall Hall. Smallwood State Park is a great place to fish from shore and it has the amenities that make fishing with kids a lot easier. Finally, Mallows Bay is open to shoreline fishing, but the middle of summer finds a good deal of submerged vegetation and algae. The Patuxent River has a growing number of blue catfish but is fairly limited in easy, kid-safe shoreline access. There’s plenty of shoreline owned by state and local governments, but much of the shore in the tidal portion is either cliff or marsh. Still, the Patuxent River park has several piers for fishing — Jacksons Landing and Selbys Landing are the farthest north and are good spots to try, although they can get crowded.
Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays
Kristen Lenox caught this nice 19-inch flounder near Ocean City Inlet. Photo by Scott Lenox
Flounder are biting in the usual spots around the inlet, but many are under the 16.5- inch size limit. More flounder are starting to mix in with sea bass on the ocean artificial reefs and shipwrecks. A mix of Spanish and king mackerel are being taken while trolling, generally inside the 20-fathom line or further inshore on lumps and other bottom structure. The chunk bite on yellowfin tuna at inshore lumps such as the Hot Dog, Hambone and the Rockpile seems to have slowed down a bit based on recent reports. White marlin, blue marlin, and dolphinfish are being caught at the canyons, such as Washington, Norfolk, and Poormans.
Effective Aug. 17, NOAA Fisheries requires private recreational tilefish vessels in the Mid-Atlantic to get permits and file catch reports. This action is being taken to better characterize and monitor the recreational fisheries for both blueline and golden tilefish. Get your federal private recreational tilefish vessel permit through theNOAA Fisheries website. Call 978-282-8438 for questions about the permitting process. Private recreational tilefish anglers must also fill out and submit an electronic vessel trip report within 24 hours of returning to port for trips where tilefish were targeted or retained.
Anglers fishing near shore or in the surf are reminded to use caution when handling sharks. Do not drag them high up on the sand.Dusky and sandbar sharks look similar, and both sharks are prohibited from harvest. If you cannot identify a shark, let it go in the water. State and federal regulations require shark anglers to use corrodible, non-stainless circle hooks except when fishing with artificial flies and lures, and any shark that is not being kept is to be released in the water. Anglers must have a device capable of quickly cutting either the leader or the hook.
Also, any harvested bluefin tuna, billfish, swordfish, or shark (except spiny dogfish) must be reported via theCatch Card Censusbefore it is moved from a boat or point of landing, to be in compliance with state and federal regulations. Catch cards and tags are available at tackle shops, marinas, and kiosks around Ocean City, andonline. Please use the kiosk at the Colonel Jack Taylor Boathouse located in west Ocean City when businesses are closed. Simply fill out the card found in the kiosk and tear off the receipt on the edge of the card, and leave the card in the kiosk. Identification and compliance information is available from theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.” — Paul Schullery
It’s summertime and the fish aren’t jumping. At least not the trout in Southern California.
A contagious, potentially fatal bacteria has infected trout in the three state-run hatcheries that provide the fish to public lakes in Southern California and the eastern Sierra. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife expects to euthanize all 3.2 million trout in those hatcheries this week.
The disease, which never before has seen in California, was first identified at the Mojave River Hatchery in Victorville in April, and then at the Black Rock and Fish Springs hatcheries in the Owens Valley in June.
Quarantines were immediately put in place but biologists have been unable to eliminate the illness, known as Lactococcus garviae.
“This bacterium is resistant to all the treatment options we have available for fish,” said Jay Rowan, program manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife hatcheries. “The fish losses were getting worse despite our treatments. The best option we have available that will get us back to planting fish from these hatcheries in the shortest timeline … is to start over.”
While some trout will be diverted to Southern California lakes from hatcheries elsewhere in the state, it takes two years for a trout to grow to a catchable size and Rowan estimated it will be 2022 before trout stock in the area’s lakes returns to usual levels.
“There’s no way to make up for those fish,” he said. “It’s going to take time to get back to where we were.”
So far, the bacteria has not been found in fish already in lakes. But Rowan said it may just be a matter of time before fish there begin showing symptoms of bulging eyes, lethargic swimming and premature death, as trout were planted in lakes before the disease was identified.
“It’s probably likely we released infected fish,” he said. “If there are sick fish and fish are dying, we’ll hear about it pretty quickly from anglers and from Fish and Wildlife biologists.”
For anglers eager to hook trout, Rowan recommended keeping an eye on the fish planting schedule on his department’s website and noted that trout tend to get fished out quickly. As of Tuesday, July 28, the only fish stocking scheduled in the greater Los Angeles area was at Big Bear Lake, where the planting is listed as ongoing this week through Saturday, Aug. 1.
Other fish, including bass and blue gill, are at their normal levels in most lakes. Privately stocked lakes with trout may also be at normal levels.
Human infection?
It’s unknown how the bacteria made its way to California, but it’s been found in bird feces and Rowan said one theory is that birds brought it to the state.
The disease has recently been identified in Washington and the Midwest in recent years. Historically, it “has been reported in cattle and poultry farms as well as fresh and salt water fish and shell fish hatcheries around the world,” according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
“Fish-to-human transmission of this bacteria is rare and unlikely but there are several documented instances associated with immuno-compromised people consuming infected raw fish and unpasteurized milk products,” according to the website.
It’s uncertain how the department would respond if the bacteria begins showing up in fish already in lakes.
“There are so many variables to a situation like that that I can’t say with a lot of certainty what our response would be,” Rowan said. “How we respond would depend a lot on how wide spread in the environment it was, if fish in the water or waters were exhibiting symptoms or if they were just asymptotic carriers, etc.”
In the meantime, the diseased hatchery fish will be euthanized by injecting CO2 into the water.
“It’s painless,” Rowan said. “They just fall asleep.”
