There’s little evidence more people are getting sick, but they are getting grossed out.
Allison Little, a middle school assistant principal from Anchorage, has been fishing on the Kasilof River her entire adult life, so she’s used to seeing wormy parasites coiled up in fish on occasion. But last year, as she cleaned her dipnet catch, the worm situation edged into horror movie territory.
“What we saw was an increase from an average of less than one worm per 100 fish — to more than one worm in every fish,” said Chelsea Wood, the Seattle-based parasite ecologist who oversaw the study.Wood supervised, published in April, looked only at Alaska salmon. It used long-expired canned fish that had been stored at the Seafood Products Association, a trade organization located in Seattle.
“I tell them we’re lucky, the worms in that fish are telling them that the fish came from a healthy ecosystem, that it came from a place that’s being well managed and not overexploited,” she said. “I know that they’re super gross to see, but they’re actually a really good sign.” “Traditionally we would have been intaking more of our traditional medicines and other berries that help with the natural cleansing of our system,” Hodgdon saidAlaskans are committed salmon eaters. Intellectually, many know that worms can be killed with proper preparation, but sometimes there’s a visceral aversion that’s a little hard to get over, said Matt Akers, an Anchorage pilot and sportfisherman. He’s haunted by a time when he was processing red salmon roe for bait a couple of seasons ago.
People who handle a lot of raw fish can also become allergic to the parasites. This is sometimes perceived as being allergic to salmon, Wood said.
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