What the hell is turning pink salmon yellow in the Fraser River?

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      Alexandra Morton wants to know why pink salmon in B.C. are turning yellow.

      Earlier this week, the biologist and environmentalist found four of these salmon up the Fraser River.

      Morton has posted an open letter on her blog addressed to Laura Richards, Pacific regional director of science for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, demanding answers. She asserts the federal department must be aware of the case of the yellow salmon.

      The biologist states:

      We want the diagnosis on the yellow salmon. We want to know if we a getting a side order of brain tumour in the salmon we are eating. Please give us a timeline on receiving this information and when we can expect updates from you.

      In her letter, Morton notes a provincial scientist has diagnosed a form of jaundice in farmed salmon that is similar to a virus found in coho salmon in Chile. Some B.C. fish farmers have operations in the South American country, she points out.

      That's not all. Morton begins her letter with the following:

      I am writing to ask for your progress report on the thousands of silver-bright sockeye and now Coho that are floating dead down the Fraser River tributaries feeding into the Harrison River. People on the river say this has been ongoing since early August reaching upstream of Harrison Lake and estimate 100,000 sockeye have died in this area without spawning.

      "There is something very wrong here", Morton tells Richards.

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      Comments

      44 Comments

      Oh, Oh, I know, I know!

      Oct 6, 2011 at 5:02pm

      It's pee and other interesting household chemicals. Maybe from that fairly large city that drains directly into the Fraser River. I think it's called Vancouver.

      don in terrace

      Oct 6, 2011 at 8:41pm

      Pollution,. a combination of industry,. multitude of boats running up and down the river,. fish are clean when they leave the ocean and when travelling thru johnson straite they're nice & silver,. after they get there-- weird things happen,.

      fxjbird

      Oct 6, 2011 at 8:43pm

      I think you don't just mean Vancouver. You must also mean Abbotsford.... and Mission, Maple Ridge, Coquitlam, New West..... you get the picture

      James G

      Oct 6, 2011 at 11:06pm

      What the Hell has turned all the pink activists green in communities along the Fraser River?

      Oh, Oh, I know, I know!

      It's salaries and skyrocketing house values. Maybe from inventing issues like "sustainability" I can still look like an activist while my investments flow capital into my accounts like a river.

      It's called Denial.

      RadBoy

      Oct 7, 2011 at 6:41am

      Maybe Fukushima? Do they glow in the dark?

      Goldorak

      Oct 7, 2011 at 8:13am

      It is what makes environmentalists who predicted low numbers of slamon turn green: anger! LOL

      Odd

      Oct 7, 2011 at 9:01am

      The article said: <blockquote>"....floating dead down the Fraser River tributaries feeding into the Harrison River."</blockquote> & <blockquote>"...found four of these salmon up the Fraser River." </blockquote>

      Clearly these salmon are not affected by the lower mainland population. Tributaries above the Harrison are virtual wilderness areas!

      Anissa Reed

      Oct 7, 2011 at 9:29am

      I was with her talking the pictures and samples... It is disease people. the livers are green with yellow/red spots. The flesh of the fish is almost yellow. These fish were full of eggs and milt. The Chinook in the salmon farm feedlots in Clayoquot Sound may have the very same thing (we learned at the Cohen Commission) Are they spreading disease to our wild salmon? I would like to know but DFO director Dr Laura Richards just told us on the stand at Cohen that it is no ones job to look at the disease records of those feedlots.

      JRinAB

      Oct 7, 2011 at 10:09am

      Those of us outside the scare press universe know that yellow is the fish equivalent of being albino. Some yellow individuals are common in all large populations of fish.

      satinka

      Oct 7, 2011 at 10:54am

      OMG...it's GLOWING!!! Do you suppose the pollution is NOT being regulated??? Anyway, who is regulating? Bribe$ can turn aside many eyes.