A tourist visiting Alaska posted a haunting video on August 6 showing scores of dead salmon floating in the waters of Tutka Bay Lagoon. The FRANCE 24 Observers team decided to find out what was the cause -- and why other many other salmon die-offs have been reported across the state.

While out kayaking, Ales Richter, a Czech tourist on vacation in Alaska, captured a 13-second video showing hundreds of dead fish in the Tutka Bay Lagoon in the southern part of the state. When he posted the video to Facebook, Richter blamed “the incredibly warm and sunny summer” and generally rising temperatures due to global warming for the deaths of fish.Richter’s video garnered more than six million views on Facebook and was reposted on several other pages -- each time with the same explanation -- that global warming was the culprit. In August, the temperature in Tutka rose to 23 degrees Celsius. At the same time last year, the temperature in Tutka was lower -- between 16 and 19 degrees Celsius.

However, according to local media, these fish deaths were the result of an accident, not global warming. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Dean Day, the executive director of the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, which works on salmon conservation and runs a hatchery in Tutka Bay Lagoon. Members of thIS association occasionally fish in the lagoon to finance their activities, using a net called a seine that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats.

This unfortunate incident happened on July 28 while we were fishing. Our seiner [a type of net] broke after snagging on something in the water and many salmon were trapped in the net, crowded into a very small space. Quite a few of them died from shock and lack of oxygen and, when the net eventually tore open, their carcasses floated to the surface. We estimate that about 1,200 salmon died in the accident. Overall, however, we were able to harvest more than 13,000 living salmon [and sell them to a processor]. As far as I know, aside from this accident, there weren’t any other unusual fish deaths in the region.

This account was confirmed by Glenn Hollowell, the local management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who works specifically on salmon. Hollowell told local media outlet the Homer News that he had seen Richter’s video and that he definitely didn’t think that warm temperatures were to blame for the fish deaths, as the tourist who made the video claimed.

“It would be unusual that the fish would be grouped that tightly in the same direction,” Hollowell said. “They were all similar quality. They were all similar fish.”

Salmon deaths across Alaska

However, over the past few weeks, other Alaskans have also reported suspicious salmon deaths in their areas. Reports have come in from all different parts of the state, which extends over 1.718 million kilometers - more than twice the size of France.

Female salmon die off naturally about two months after spawning, sometime between June and August. However, this summer, local activists and researchers have found quite a few dead female salmon who were still carrying healthy eggs.

Ricko de Wilde lives in Husila, on the shores of the Kokuyuk River. De Wilde also took to Facebook to post about curious salmon deaths in his area -- which is close to 720 kilometers from Tutka Bay where the fishing accident took place.

On June 20, De Wilde posted his concerns on Facebook.

I just drove 200+ miles on it and literally seen them floating everywhere. We just had weeks of 80 degree weather [equivalent to about 26 degrees Celsius] so it may be [heatstroke]. It would be good to have the [F]eds send out some scientists to look into this matter because the way it’s looking we may be seeing a very low return of salmon for our future generations.

At this time last year, the average temperature in Koyukuk was just over 16 degrees Celsius.



De Wilde isn’t the only person to notice exceptional numbers of salmon dying. People all across Alaska -- from Kuskokwim to Norton Sound to Bristol Bay -- have all reported similar worrying sightings, as you can see in the map below.