Climate-linked disease injures Alaska’s salmon

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.

Baltimore Sun