As Alaska's salmon plummet, scientists home in on the killer – Science – AAAS
39 comments
·August 19, 2025hungmung
Headline reads like these salmon are being killed by science.
LostMyLogin
I was intrigued because I genuinely thought that’s what it said.
2OEH8eoCRo0
It's not? Industrialization, pollution, and climate change are downstream effects of science.
thfuran
They're all being killed by the big bang.
dfxm12
If you continue just a little bit, when you get to the source, it should make things more clear. Considering the source is important, as is reading the article!
BigFnTelly
hungmung's comment is alluding to the misleading syntax of the submission title
Melatonic
Yeah this should seriously be re-titled lmao
dec0dedab0de
I wonder if the ones that make it to spawn had something in their genes to help them survive the parasites and warmer temperatures. Hopefully they do, and the overall population adapts.
throwaway81523
"Chinook in the Yukon River appear to be particularly vulnerable to a common parasite—and warming waters may be abetting the infection"
Mistletoe
Different stories, same culprit everytime.
ToucanLoucan
It will frustrate me until the day I die the sheer NUMBER of problems directly attributable to human-caused climate change and how every government damn near world-wide simply refuses to do anything.
We know the fucking problem, we know the fucking solution, and we simply don't because the rich people would lose a bit of money and they control everything.
mhb
Wouldn't it still be a problem if it wasn't human-caused?
colonCapitalDee
I share your frustration, but I think you're blaming the wrong group. The median voter simply does not care about climate change, and is not willing to shoulder any of the short-term costs necessary to address it. They'd rather have cheap gas for their car, not have to look at fields of solar panels, and signal their opposition to "wokeness".
dec0dedab0de
Wait, we know the solution? What is it?
metalman
I occasionaly imagine a satire skit where "The great mistery of the dissapearing Salmon" episode is done on fishing boat decks, fish plants and the super market fresh and canned fish sections, montyesk AMAZMENT! and OUTRAGE!, whilst the whole industrial mining operation goes on around them
jmpetroske
If you’re implying that fishing is the main culprit, I’d invite you to do some further reading. These fisheries are carefully managed to ensure that salmon are able to spawn. Granted, there is the existence of trawling boats which do cause real harm. Yet, almost all commercial fishermen detest the practice of bottom trawling due to the harm it causes.
41 millions pounds of sockeye were caught in Bristol Bay this season. I was up there working on a boat myself. Yet, the rivers were still thick with sockeye at the end of the season. It is not a free-for-all where people are allowed to catch fish in any manner they want, the rules and regulations are there to ensure that fishing is not impacting the long-term viability of these runs.
dogman144
Well the detesting trawling angle is valid but similar to how you could detect coal mining in West Virginia the mountains/sea bottom is gone either way.
I believe the single most important policy change for fishiers would be to end trawling, second being sort out international regs.
Both very hard, both bad news for kings. But at some point people are going to see the outcomes in their grocery stores and maybe that’ll start change.
vkou
The fisheries are carefully managed to keep the fishermen happy.
Whether or not that results in collapse of fishing stocks is down to greed and blind luck. When the coin lands heads, you get the Atlantic cod fishery collapse, where all the fishermen were insisting that the existing regulations were already onerous enough, and then one day there was no more cod.
zzzeek
The killer is as always side effects and direct effects of global warming. Meaning humans are the killer.
Nathanael_M
[flagged]
eYrKEC2
Wait until you find out about Native American's unrestricted fishing rights and their use of modern commercial fishing ships and equipment.
dogman144
Rich comment, but a an old one.
Global warming is playing out in AK in a way only as observable down south with perhaps the dwindling skiing and the colo river. Wrapping that all up into how you phrased it is pretty darn close to the ol “greedy undisciplined Native” trope.
But sure, blame the tribes, and make sure it’s done extra strongly on the next sport fishing trip in Ak that can’t offer Kings as you’ll be seen as very aware of the issues by your guide.
ahmeneeroe-v2
True on the Columbia river too
more_corn
I cannot stand withholding headlines. single-celled fish parasite called Ichthyophonus
Especially on paywalled content.
whycome
The headline clearly says that 'Science' is the culprit.
ninetyninenine
without reading the article it must be humans.
jandrese
Or the "global warming left the environment more hospitable to some horrible parasite/disease".
jjtheblunt
you missed the gory parasite details
Pxtl
Root cause is still humans. Parasite is thriving because of warming waters, caused by anthropogenic climate change.
Oh.My.Gosh. "Ich". Have had a home aquarium guy forever. Got a few Ich infestations (always after introducing new, store-bought fish). Although not the same strain (tropical usually is Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis). Sounds pretty much like the same infection progression. Me, and every other tropical aquarium enthusiast, HATES Ich. Now doubly so given a favorable opinion of wild salmon.
What happens when you get Ich in an aquarium: While tendrils start to show up then lengthen on your fish. You try a few treatments, but by the time you see it it cannot be stopped easily. When your fish are covered by pretty long white "shite" strands, they start to die. Worse than any horror film you might have seen. Man do I hate Ich.