Photo by John Cochrane
Pictures of dead salmon in the water have been showing up on social media with many saying it is being caused by warm water temperatures. A photo from John Cochrane shows a dead salmon, when in fact he found 13 dead on the lower falls on the Southeast river Placentia. He says the water temp at 6 am was 22.8 on the 23. Cochrane believed it was the heart that caused it since there is no hook and release fishing in that area. Don Ivany is the director of programs for Newfoundland and Labrador with the Atlantic Salmon Federation. He says they monitor social media sites but this incident seems to be isolated. “I’ve seen the pictures and I think the 9 fish succumbed due to stress from high water temperatures, “ he says. “It seems to be isolated to just that river.” Ivany says he’s not surprised to see this happen given the very warm temperatures lately. “We have had some extremely warm temperatures and into a heatwave,” he says. “Once water temperature hits 24 or 25 degrees it can be lethal to salmon.” Ivany says he hasn’t seen too many dead fish in past years but it does happen from time to time.