Salmon with fungal infection in the harbour?

[johnvincent]

Hello everyone,

first of all apologies for writing in english.

I am currently living near Simrishamn in Skåne, and am very close to a local harbour. I have been visiting the harbour at night just to have a look for signs of fish, and have spotted on numerous occasions what appear to be Salmon coming in and just floating around/swimming very very slowly near the surface.

At first I thought possibly they were seeking refuge from rough water far out as the appear to be very lazy looking, but now I think they may be coming in due to being quite sick.

I thought to ask about them here as it seemed a likely place that someone may know more about the behavior than me, I am new to these waters being a native of the UK/Ireland.

I was quite concerned as I have seen that almost every fish I see that look like Salmon, were covered in what looks like fungal infections, some almost to the point that the whole fish looked covered in it and some even appearing to have open sores.

I may try one evening soon if I could photograph one of them, they don't seem to be too reactive of my movements above the water, they move away slowly but not as fearful as I would expect a fish to react in clear water.

Any ideas of if this is a common thing, seeing Salmon with this fungal problems/behavior in shallow water?

I thought maybe I might need to report it to some official agency but I wouldn't know who that would be.

J

[riggs]

Länsstyrelsen would be the most appropriate agency to contact. I'm fairly sure they offer their website in English, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. If you have trouble finding the appropriate contact info, let me know and I'll take a look for you.

In addition to Länsstyrelsen, I would also recommend you to contact the Sportfiskarna organisation, preferably with a photo if possible. I am sure they will be quite interested in this.

Let me know if you have any further issues in contacting them - I'll give you a hand if needed.

[johnvincent]

Thank you Riggs, I have just emailed both agencies, hopefully someone will get back at some time.

I found it saddening to see such fish looking sick, I at first was very excited to see them at first as I have been wishing to fish along the coast for 'havsöring', but then seeing these fish like this makes me feel sad and not really confident for their survival.

[daikai1]

i think sportfiskarna had an article about this... its å fungus and you should report the sick fishes to länstyrelsen

Read more here and i think theres more articles bout this.

http://www.sva.se/om-sva/pressrum/nyheter-fran-sva/sva-utreder-varfor-laxfiskar-dor

http://www.sportfiskarna.se/Om-oss/Aktuellt/ArticleID/5704&ved=0ahUKEwiaiuLJx4XRAhXMCywKHSdWBDAQFggdMAE&usg=AFQjCNEElY3QZKI5_vm-Ic8JgAE2OvoqCQ

[riggs]

SVA (the government agency responsible for all veterinary medicine-related phenomena) has a website where you can report seemingly sick fish. It's in Swedish or Finnish, but again, if you want to use it and online translators fall short, I'll translate it for you. First and foremost, however, Länsstyrelsen is the responsible agency at a regional level.

https://rapporterafisk.sva.se

[johnvincent]

Hi, yes that looks and sounds like similar symptoms to one of the links provided.

I have emailed both agencies that Riggs offered so will await a reply. I may try to get some pictures in the meantime. Very sad if these fish will be killed or die I think, each night I have seen at least up to 5 coming in, with varying degrees of fungus.

I did see one that appeared to not have any that I could see, but it was still in very shallow water and just sort of slowly moving like as if it was sleeping.

Does anyone know about Salmon behaviour? Do they normally come into shallow water at night? They don't seem to be looking for any food or anything and normally are up at the surface of the water.

[johnvincent]

Thanks Riggs yes I will await to see if the first agencies get back and if not by tomorrow evening I will try the SVA report... I will update it here if anyone is interested...

[johnvincent]

I have received a reply from Lansstyrelsen and they said;

'Hi John!

What you have seen is probably seetrout that have returned from the rivers after spawning. During the spawningperiod many of the seatruts hurt them self in fithe fish can get gets or when they getting past different obstacles during their migration. The wounds get infected by fungi and that causes a fast decline in the condition of the fish. If they survive and gets out in the sea, the salt water will kill the fungi and after a while the fish comes back to life!

Yours hälsningars
JOHAN WAGNSTRÖM
Fisheries Director / Fishing and water conservation unit'

So it appears they may be sea trout, it was hard for me to tell that they are not Salmon, i'm not used to such large sea trout you have here

I did ask if they would still like a picture if I can get one, I will post it here if I manage to get a decent one...

[riggs]

The content of that reply was fairly hard to decipher. "... can get gets..." - ??

[johnvincent]

I'm assuming that some words may have been lost in translation

I think part of that point was that some of the wounds might be from fighting and hitting obstacles on their travels...

I hope one day I will catch of these large sized sea trout along the coast, but hopefully more healthy ones. I did try to fish off the rocks in summer for sea trout but think it was not the best time.

Whatever I fish for I return so it would have been nice to catch some of these ones now and maybe give them some medicine or something if that existed, ah well...