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Herring found along the shoreline of Sointula, Malcolm Island on the northeastern Vancouver Island are showing severe symptoms of bleeding reports biologist Alexandra Morton. Morton states, "This is a re-occurring event, but this is most severe symptoms that I have seen. In past, the fins of the herring have been bloodshot, but now it is also their bellies. They are bleeding from beneath their scales, many are bleeding in their eyeballs."
These herring are swimming with tiny sockeye and are food for the chinook and coho runs now passing through the area. Morton has written a letter to Mark Saunders, DFO Manager, Salmon and Freshwater Ecosystems, Pacific Biological Station, asking that the scientists there try to figure out what is happening to the herring.
The letter states:
Dear Mark Saunders:
I am writing to you as the DFO "Manager of Salmon and Freshwater Ecosystems", Pacific Biological Station. I have spoken to you in the past and I feel certain you can help me with my question.
What is wrong with the herring along northeastern Vancouver Island?
Schools of bleeding herring were in eastern Johnstone Strait in June and now they are near Alert Bay and Sointula, I do not know if they are occurring elsewhere. The symptoms are more extreme than I have seen before. If this is being caused by a virus the likelihood that it is spreading to the small sockeye they are swimming with (perhaps from Nimpkish) and the chinook and coho that feed on herring is high.
I am writing to ask that you have these fish tested and report back to us with verifiable test results. If you have any trouble locating these fish I can assist you, but I am not going to collect them for you. DFO has recently opened massive commercial herring fisheries and so the health of these fish is paramount to their survival. Herring are essential to the wild salmon that swim to and through British Columbia.
I am specifically requesting that in addition to viral testing that genomic profiling be done by Dr. Kristi Miller's lab so that we can understand the state of the immune systems of these fish.
Thank you,
Alexandra Morton
On August 12 Morton reported in her newsletter that "DFO has answered my request that they test the herring from northeastern Vancouver Island. They said they have not received any reports of a die-off, but their crew in the region is going to try to get samples if possible. I appreciate their response and I will be following up with them to see how it goes. I attribute the fast response to all of you who wrote to them. Thank you."