October
2006
Fish Species Dying Mysteriously
Couldn’t find this article online, so I retyped it. This is a little strange one, a local mystery. What’s killing the fish of Kona?
Scientsts left fishing for answers
Several Fish Species Have Been Dying MysteriouslyBy Carolyn Lucas
Scientists are baffled as to why several species of fish have been discovered floating in the ocean over the last four months.
There’s no obvious cause or discernible pattern to the low-level die-off that has continued for four months. Nevertheless, reports continue to come in, said William Walsh, aquatic biologist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources.
The geographic range of the mysterious deaths includes the Big Island, Maui, Molokai and Oahu.
In West Hawaii, the species affected include roi, Hawaiian grouper, long-nose butterfly, yellow tang, lagoon triggerfish, goatfish, Moorish idol, wrasse and bullethead parrotfish.
The species hit hardest is roi, or peacock grouper. It is one of the fish species from Moorea introduced to Oahu and the Big Island in 1956 as a potential food fish for hawaii residents.
A West hawaii resident was the first to report seven roi found belly-up in the water with expanded swim bladders and bulging eyes May 22.
The so-called “popeye effect” is sometimes thgouth to derive from gas-bubble disease, caused by oversaturation of water with air. Walsh dismissed the theory. He thinks the oversized eyes suggest a fairly rapid ascent.
The DAR has discovered fewer than a dozen fish with the same characteristics; three were still alive.
Wasl observed a bullethead parrotfish swimming upside down, spiraling up and down, near death.
“It is kind of scary to see a fish struggling and in distress while underwater,” he said. “It’s unnerving. You start to wonder whether this is the beginning of something bigger. But it can also be something that just passes through. We just don’t know.”
Fish were sent to the U.S. Geological Survey hawaii Field Station on Oahu, where pathologist Theirry Work analyzed them.
“Test results revealed no parasites,” Walsh said. “There was nothing wrong with the fish, except they were dead.”
Work will conduct a tissue sample to investigate the cell structure of the fish.
To further the investigation, Walsh is asking the public to report all suspicious fish dieoffs, including the date, location, depth and any behavior observed. If possible, chill recently dead fish and bring them to the DAR at 74-380B Kealakehe Parkway in Kailua-Kona.
For more information, call 327-6226 or e-mail to darkona@hawaiiantel.net.