Alaskan Salmon Falling Prey to Parasite: State Fisheries Official Couldn’t Care Less
By Tom Chandler on Jun 17, 2008 in News
A tiny parasite is infecting Alaskan salmon (as if salmon needed any more swift kicks to the groin) and endangering the commercial viability of even healthy runs. In this case, the Ichthyophonus hoferi (pronounced “ick”) parasite - which has been linked to global warming - weakens fish and renders the flesh largely inedible:
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 ever higher prices at fish markets and high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London.
Fishermen and regulators who have cooperated to save species from overfishing and local environmental hazards have been caught unprepared to deal with forces beyond their control: how to manage a fishery for climate change.
Like all good resource stories, this one - as laid out in the LA Times - suffers from its share of pathos, including a researcher (Kocan) who’s been blackballed by the state fisheries manager (Sandone), who is trying his very hardest to pretend the problem doesn’t exist.
Yeah. there’s a plan for ya.
Kocan spent five summers on the Yukon River studying the parasite, creating an uproar among fishermen by sharing his findings directly with them, rather than allowing state Fish and Game officials to review the data first.
He suddenly found his funding drying up after objections from Alaskan representatives on the committee that doles out research dollars.
“I’ve essentially been blackballed from working on the Yukon,” said Kocan, whose work has since been accepted and published in peer-reviewed journals. “There’s one fellow specifically who does not like our results: Gene Sandone. He doesn’t want to hear the story and change his management practices.”
Sandone denied playing any part in this: “I didn’t blackball Richard Kocan. Dr. Kocan is free to put in a proposal and argue his point. He just has to get it through the technical committee.”
In a classic example of denying reality and substituting his own, Sandone concocts a theory at odds with that developed by the people actually researching the problem at the river.Technorati Tags: alaskan salmon, Ichthyophonus hoferi, ick parasite, salmon recovery, salmon fisheries
“That’s my theory — that they are not dying on the way,” Sandone said. “Even if they are dying on the way, so what?” His department limits the catch based on how many fish escape all the nets and make it to the spawning grounds to reproduce.
That’s been going well, he said, except for last year, when the number of fish that made it to Canada fell 50% below the minimum spelled out in a U.S.-Canadian agreement.
Yes, with only 50% of the minimum number of fish surviving the trip, it sounds like everything’s “going well.” Real well.
Chile Doctor | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Any idea whose pocket this guy Sandone rides in? I can’t think of any other reason to be this muttonheaded. If he were naturally this cretinous he wouldn’t be able to untie his toes, let alone find his parka…
(Not that I have any strong feelings on this.)
CD
Tom Chandler | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Maybe he’s just an asshole, though it seems as if he’s unwilling to do anything that might limit commercial take.
The salmon fight has been going on for years, but with foodies taking notice (and getting pissed about the situation), perhaps the extractive industries largely responsible for it (overharvesting, timber, mining, water diverters, etc) will lose some ground.
Larry Leake | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Ever read “Skinny Dip” by Carl Hiassen? Strangely similar plotline and cast of characters. Truth is always stranger than fiction.
Tom Chandler | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
I’m a Hiaasen fan, but missed Skinny Dip. Only so much time, and so many books.
Anon | Aug 9, 2008 | Reply
I just got screamed at as a guest in a home when I tried to make casual conversation about this article to someone who came back from a samon trip. Out of nowhere, the host started ranting about the lies printed by the LA TIMES as if I had a hand in writing it. (So much for just making conversation. Excuse me? Chopping off your guest’s head for merely for asking if you encountered any sick fish is not polite behavior.)
I share this because Chile Doctor wanted to know who had been paid off. Trust me, the people being paid off by the tourism boards aren’t the only ones who are willing to spout authoritarian nonsense. There are people out there who are too scared to admit that this is even possible, and the fear itself is the source of the anger, and the anger spurs on this false controversy. If a lab ID’d the specimen as ICK that’s good enough for me. I don’t need to hear someone go off on a rant about how the newspaper is filled with tree hugging liars. That has nothing to do with the SCIENCE in the lab. The newspaper didn’t pay for that. They reported on it. To believe everything and anything that rubs you the wrong way or is too scary to consider must be a lie is to stick one’s head in the ground and then scream at everyone else to stop looking. Schizo-affective disorder — aka “everybody’s out to get me” — complicated by authoritarian personality type (”everything I dislike learning about must be the product of a politically-motivated conspiracy”), no doubt. These people believe their own lives, they don’t have to be in anybody’s pocket.
Tom Chandler | Aug 10, 2008 | Reply
I wish I could say this was an isolated thing, but there’s a whole media industry out there built for the express purpose of telling people what they want to hear.