Pacific salmon may be dying from leukemia-type virus

WASHINGTON -- In Canada's Fraser River, a mysterious illness has killed millions of Pacific salmon, and scientists have a new hypothesis about why: The wild salmon are suffering from viral infections similar to those linked to some forms of leukemia and lymphoma.

For 60 years before the early 1990s, an average of nearly 8 million wild salmon returned from the Pacific Ocean to the Fraser River each year to spawn.

Now the salmon industry is in a state of collapse, with mortality rates ranging from 40 percent to 95 percent.

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reply to post by digby888


Thanks for sharing. I used to live on Vancouver Island and there was always controversy about the fish farms. The farmed salmon which are different than the regular Pacific salmon had a high rate of escape into the ocean. I always thought that eventually this would have an effect on the original wild salmon population if they were ever to interbreed. I have no proof to back this up, but I believe this could certainly be related in some way.

Star and Flag.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

i live in scotland and we have lots of fish farms around where i live

and all the chems they use to make the fish pinker and stuff like that

cant be good for the environment of the see and you've got Monsanto on the land

wreaking havoc on the land soon they'll be nothing natural left

reply to post by digby888


Yeah, I remember thinking that all that crap they give the fish just can't be good for the environment or the fish. And of course Monsanto has a hand in the operations so it has to be sinister in one way or another. I was not aware of fish farms being used in Scotland. I learned something new today, thanks

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


yes they are all over its big business

over here

It's probably radiation poisoning from the nuclear disaster in Japan. Certainly, it isn't helping the sea life....

FAIL....too early for the Fukishima thing to have happened yet....
This is ONGOING....
The fish farms do spread sea lice to the wild stocks of slamon and that may also be a ceausative for weakened immune system....
The farmed salmon have escaped and they are running wild off the island now...
They congregate in the river mouths at spawning time, and can be caught there milling around ..
They dont as yet ascend the rivers to spawn however,,
Not that ive heard of....
I live in Nanaimo and we have caught farmed salmon off the river mouth last fall in the harbour.
The radiation will become a problem, but is suspect it will take years to circulate the radiation evenly through out the north pacific.The deaths this will cause are not predictable yet, but it is certain that cancersa nd such will be on the rise everywhere the radiation touches..
Fish stocks will have to be monitored constantly for decades now.

Leukemia and nuclear radiation are related! Maybe we talk about some nuclear event way before Japan? I know Russians would just dump nuclear waste at the bottom of the sea, in the north of Siberia, maybe this was also done in the pacific by the nuclear nations?

reply to post by stirling

FAIL....too early for the Fukishima thing to have happened yet.... This is ONGOING.... The fish farms do spread sea lice to the wild stocks of slamon and that may also be a ceausative for weakened immune system....

I agree. It is way too early for the Japan incident to be causing leukemia in the Pacific NW, and you make a great point about the sea lice link to weakening the immune system.

Another theory I have that may not make much sense and anyone with counter-evidence please share, is that perhaps all the sonar activity the American and Canadian Navies have been using in that area lately. It has always been going on, but the amount of joint military exercises over the last few years has risen. This is just a theory of mine and I don't have any science to back it up, so feel free to crucify me folks I'm a big boy I can handle it. But one thing for sure, something fishy is happening over there (pun intended).

It could be anything...

OP have you heard of any issues with the fish farms in your native Scotland? I am wondering if this is a regional thing or perhaps a global phenomena. With all the die offs of all types of animals as of late, I am willing to bet that it is all linked somehow. Sorry to make all these uneducated guesses with no evidence to back it up, this is all purely speculation on my behalf and I do not claim any of this to be factual.

Cheers.