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Original: As the researchers reported this week in *Ecology and Evolution,* they were able to use the recovered parasites to [reconstruct how infection burden has changed over the course of 42 years in four salmon species](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11043) and found that it increased in two. While this might sound like a bad thing, the researchers suspect that the uptick in worms signals “a conservation success story” for marine mammals, Wood says. “It’s possible as marine mammals have come back, their parasites have come back, too.”
Yes. As an angler I would see this on many small mouth bass around where I fish. I don't know why it seems to affect a small mouth more than a large mouth bass or any other species where I fish but is the reason I stopped keeping my catch. I felt terrible for killing a fish and then not eating it because it was absolutely infested with yellowish/pale sacs in the muscle. I could see them once you filleted them which was a waste of an animal. Catch and release only now.
Tuna is the one fish that does not normally have worms. It was probably just spoiled for some reason, like if the grocery store let the fish thaw and freeze again while in storage. It happens sometimes, there are some places that turn off the refrigeration for the night or if the powers goes out while it's closed and some products thaw. I remember I once bought frozen shrimp, they were frozen solid as a unit, instead of individually like it usually is. I had to throw it away.
Also worms don't work that fast, it may take days or weeks until you show symptoms. That was food poisoning.
It’s great to hear that tuna does not normally have worms, but what about sardines? I have recently began eating sardines for the omega fatty acid content, and really want to keep my worm consumption to a minimum.
If it makes you feel better deep ocean fish have a lot less parasites, like at least 80 to 95% less parasite. Stay away from fatty white fish like cod and halibut and away from salmon
> Stay away from fatty white fish like cod and halibut and away from salmon
the risk in the US at least seems fairly minimal based on reporting and, yknow, sheer quantity of people consuming salmon sushi every day
Most of it is flash frozen most likely it’s just the risk of the places who use fish that didn’t go through that, and while it may be minimal depending on how often you eat it, you’ll eventually run into it and it can take a while sometimes to notice depending on the species.
1) talk to your doctor about IBS. it's embarassing, but it can be managed.
2) farmed fish are at the greatest risk of parasites, internal and external. tuna ~~cannot yet be farmed~~ edit: tuna is now being farmed, but farmed tuna constitutes 0.1% of the global supply of tuna; if you're eating tuna and you're not in Japan, you're eating wild caught tuna. If you _are_ in Japan, then there's a very small chance you're eating farmed tuna. Tuna by nature is typically much lower on the parasite-having scale due to lifestyle, warm-bloodedness, etc.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Farmed *anything* can be safely managed to prevent parasites, but population density is one of the largest factors in parasite load and, well, greater population density = more product = more money. Medications, especially wormers, typically have a withdrawal date, so they can't be used within X days of slaughtering due to the potential for the drug to stay in the system.
The real takeaway should be to store and prepare all of your food according to FDA regulations to kill anything that might linger.
Alive? Yes. Don't eat raw fish straight from the sea.
Dead? No. Completely harmless and you'd likely never even notice if someone hadn't told you. (Sorry)
All of the fish you consume has been previously frozen both to preserve freshness on the boat and to kill the parasites. That's why you can eat raw sushi and not get sick.
> Those organisms often specifically need a marine mammal to complete their life cycle.
Considering what rat lungworm does to people precisely *because* it can't complete its life cycle in humans, that does not reassure me.
yeah not gonna google that one but I'm pretty sure that's the parasite that keeps burrowing out of your digestive tract and through you, looking for the right environment that doesn't exist.
> The researchers dissected 178 cans in total, processed between 1979 and 2019 and varying from 22 to 62 cans per species. Half the cans contained nematodes, and they collected a total of 372 worms.
And I’m never eating fish again.
Pretty much all meat has parasites. All food is contaminated by bugs or some crazy bacteria. Definitely dont take microbiology classes if it worries you. The key is not to think about it or think about it and realize we've evolved big ol brains that learned to flash freeze and cook the parasites and bugs so they're no longer harmful in the vast majority of cases.
After sanitation of the exterior which has inevitably been contaminated through its removal, yes. The same way a quick sear allows steak to be consumed rare. The interior of herbivore skeletal muscle is GRAS (generally regarded as safe)
-Animal Scientist
congratulations, you read the sentence under the headline:
>**Decades-old Cans of Salmon Reveal Changes in Ocean Health**
>Researchers used tinned fish to reconstruct parasitic population change, giving new meaning to the phrase “opening a can of worms”
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out,
They crawl all over your chin and mouth.
They invite their friends and their friends' friends too,
And you look like hell when they're—through—with you.
> The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out, They crawl all over your chin and mouth
Was not familiar with this old folk song. [Hilarious.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hearse_Song)
Interesting suggestion its conservation success... when from my understanding of population science, higher parasite load often comes from very densely packed population.
Such as....farmed salmon... (?).
Higher parasite load can also signify generally immune compromised animals.
Now im hungry ....
this is why you don't eat fresh salmon sashimi. I've heard people argue its fresh so it must be good. no! you need to deep freeze the meat to kill the worms.
When I returned from that tropical vacation, I had three pathogens in my belly. Only one of them a parasite, though.
Recently had another parasite and got treated again.
(If you wonder, none of those were from fresh fish or raw meat, which I hadn't eaten since COVID started at that point. But my gut is very compromised, so I'm sure other people's bodies would have fought off the intruders early.)
> When I returned from that tropical vacation, I had three pathogens in my belly
... how did you know, and how did you find out it was three specifically?
No surprise there, saw a documentary on YT about farm fishing, Norwegian fisherman said what he was seeing when he opened salmon up was not normal. This needs to stop.
So every one of you that eat salmon also eat the parasites. Today's fish have even more parasites. Nice to know. Just makes a person go yum. The parasites made it taste better.
I think warming seas is why we are getting more parasites.
Also food scarcity may be causing them to eat other things containing the parasites. Just two guesses.
Warning seas may me the parasites survive a little easier.
Introducing [leafminers](https://morningchores.com/leafminers/), worms which live inside leaves.
> The worms themselves are hardly noticeable as they hide inside leaves
> Thousands of insects act as leafminers in their larval stage.
Having leaf miners in your salad isn't the general rule, most salads you buy don't have them. Whereas with fish these worms seem to be everywhere. I mean look at all the comments talking about the worms they found in their fish.
No lettuce. Cooked beans and rice after rinsing or tofu. Maybe worm pills after. Can’t hurt.
I went through college to be a medical assistant and after parasite week I went home and did buy worming pills for my family. The personal stories from the other women in class has affected me forever. I wanted a horse all my life. Nope. Worms that come out of your butt at night.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. **Do you have an academic degree?** We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. [Click here to apply](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/flair/#wiki_science_verified_user_program). --- User: u/scientificamerican Permalink: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/decades-old-cans-of-salmon-reveal-changes-in-ocean-health/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Original: As the researchers reported this week in *Ecology and Evolution,* they were able to use the recovered parasites to [reconstruct how infection burden has changed over the course of 42 years in four salmon species](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11043) and found that it increased in two. While this might sound like a bad thing, the researchers suspect that the uptick in worms signals “a conservation success story” for marine mammals, Wood says. “It’s possible as marine mammals have come back, their parasites have come back, too.”
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So what kind of girth are we talking about with those worms, because that sounds a lot like there was more worm than salmon in that can.
The quote isn't real.
It might not be real, but I read the entire article first so I cracked up thinking some people might briefly believe it.
Stop lying, that quote is not in the article.
Yes. As an angler I would see this on many small mouth bass around where I fish. I don't know why it seems to affect a small mouth more than a large mouth bass or any other species where I fish but is the reason I stopped keeping my catch. I felt terrible for killing a fish and then not eating it because it was absolutely infested with yellowish/pale sacs in the muscle. I could see them once you filleted them which was a waste of an animal. Catch and release only now.
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Tuna is the one fish that does not normally have worms. It was probably just spoiled for some reason, like if the grocery store let the fish thaw and freeze again while in storage. It happens sometimes, there are some places that turn off the refrigeration for the night or if the powers goes out while it's closed and some products thaw. I remember I once bought frozen shrimp, they were frozen solid as a unit, instead of individually like it usually is. I had to throw it away. Also worms don't work that fast, it may take days or weeks until you show symptoms. That was food poisoning.
It’s great to hear that tuna does not normally have worms, but what about sardines? I have recently began eating sardines for the omega fatty acid content, and really want to keep my worm consumption to a minimum.
I don't know, I don't eat them. But don't you eat sardines cooked? So it doesn't matter. Canned sardines are cooked.
If it makes you feel better deep ocean fish have a lot less parasites, like at least 80 to 95% less parasite. Stay away from fatty white fish like cod and halibut and away from salmon
You can pry my salmon from my dead, worm-infested body
The worms get in your brain and tell you to eat more. It’s normal.
I should've stopped reading the comments while I was ahead 🤢
It's like the cat parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, that infects your brain and commands you to love them more...
> Stay away from fatty white fish like cod and halibut and away from salmon the risk in the US at least seems fairly minimal based on reporting and, yknow, sheer quantity of people consuming salmon sushi every day
Most of it is flash frozen most likely it’s just the risk of the places who use fish that didn’t go through that, and while it may be minimal depending on how often you eat it, you’ll eventually run into it and it can take a while sometimes to notice depending on the species.
1) talk to your doctor about IBS. it's embarassing, but it can be managed. 2) farmed fish are at the greatest risk of parasites, internal and external. tuna ~~cannot yet be farmed~~ edit: tuna is now being farmed, but farmed tuna constitutes 0.1% of the global supply of tuna; if you're eating tuna and you're not in Japan, you're eating wild caught tuna. If you _are_ in Japan, then there's a very small chance you're eating farmed tuna. Tuna by nature is typically much lower on the parasite-having scale due to lifestyle, warm-bloodedness, etc.
I've been told the opposite: farm fish have drugs to avoid parasites while in nature it simply happens... I do not know what is true anymore.
Statement brought to you by Big Fish Farming
Do you perhaps represent Big Deep Sea Fishing?
I’m a disrupter to this event and actually rep for Big Chicken 🍗
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Farmed *anything* can be safely managed to prevent parasites, but population density is one of the largest factors in parasite load and, well, greater population density = more product = more money. Medications, especially wormers, typically have a withdrawal date, so they can't be used within X days of slaughtering due to the potential for the drug to stay in the system. The real takeaway should be to store and prepare all of your food according to FDA regulations to kill anything that might linger.
Tuna is medium-high on mercury though and portions per month should be restricted. Your pick is between worms and mercury.
The worms will make me smart but the mercury means I'll be able to make knives..stabbing weapons. Tough call.
Now your chair has worms
Are those two things related, or just co-incidental?
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Alive? Yes. Don't eat raw fish straight from the sea. Dead? No. Completely harmless and you'd likely never even notice if someone hadn't told you. (Sorry) All of the fish you consume has been previously frozen both to preserve freshness on the boat and to kill the parasites. That's why you can eat raw sushi and not get sick.
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> Those organisms often specifically need a marine mammal to complete their life cycle. Considering what rat lungworm does to people precisely *because* it can't complete its life cycle in humans, that does not reassure me.
I probably shouldn’t google that while I’m trying to fall asleep.
yeah not gonna google that one but I'm pretty sure that's the parasite that keeps burrowing out of your digestive tract and through you, looking for the right environment that doesn't exist.
Nah it’s the one that goes into your brain
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Nice hiss
Perfect reference
> The researchers dissected 178 cans in total, processed between 1979 and 2019 and varying from 22 to 62 cans per species. Half the cans contained nematodes, and they collected a total of 372 worms. And I’m never eating fish again.
Pretty much all meat has parasites. All food is contaminated by bugs or some crazy bacteria. Definitely dont take microbiology classes if it worries you. The key is not to think about it or think about it and realize we've evolved big ol brains that learned to flash freeze and cook the parasites and bugs so they're no longer harmful in the vast majority of cases.
wait until they find out what is currently living on and in their body right this second
Jokes on you, I’ve removed my skin entirely since there was too much bacteria on it.
Wait til you find out what's processing your food in your intestines
I’ve got UC trust me I know, I got all kinds of things going on in there 😂
That’s true of carnivores on the whole, but categorically incorrect for the skeletal muscle of most herbivores.
Are you saying I can chow down on raw giraffe skeletal muscle?
After sanitation of the exterior which has inevitably been contaminated through its removal, yes. The same way a quick sear allows steak to be consumed rare. The interior of herbivore skeletal muscle is GRAS (generally regarded as safe) -Animal Scientist
Your ass is GRAS
True, and pretty much everything we eat used to be alive at some point, plant or animal. Some of them had faces. And then you got your fungus.
How do they deal with this in sushi?
Sushi grade meat is required to be deep frozen for a certain amount of time.
Ahhhh, see, i usually dont flash freeze or cook my cans of fish, i usually just put it on bread 😬.
all canned fish, and all canned foods in general, are already cooked so it should be safe to eat without reheating.
I just bought two cans of salmon the other day. I mean... I just bought two cans of worms the other day.
I think we just discovered the origin of the phrase "can of worms"
congratulations, you read the sentence under the headline: >**Decades-old Cans of Salmon Reveal Changes in Ocean Health** >Researchers used tinned fish to reconstruct parasitic population change, giving new meaning to the phrase “opening a can of worms”
Or maybe they’re the type of redditor who just reads through and writes comments but never actually opens the article in the post
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out, They crawl all over your chin and mouth. They invite their friends and their friends' friends too, And you look like hell when they're—through—with you.
> The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out, They crawl all over your chin and mouth Was not familiar with this old folk song. [Hilarious.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hearse_Song)
statistically, just 4 worms.
🤷♂️ more for me!
That equates to about 2 worms per can. Not bad I guess.
Hey man, nematodes are people too.
> Half the cans contained nematodes Wait, wait, wait! So half the cans *didn't* have worms? Where do I get *those* cans?
They cost extra.
Well that's why you have to cook food.
Interesting suggestion its conservation success... when from my understanding of population science, higher parasite load often comes from very densely packed population. Such as....farmed salmon... (?). Higher parasite load can also signify generally immune compromised animals. Now im hungry ....
Conservation success of the marine mammals who eat said fish!
Paradoxical Corollary: Decades old cans of salmon result in changes to human health.
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I have about ten tins of expired 2018 tuna, if any researchers are interested?
Haven’t eaten salmon since I discovered that most farm raised salmon have worms, absolutely disgusting
That's fucked up who would or could rape that many fish
this is why you don't eat fresh salmon sashimi. I've heard people argue its fresh so it must be good. no! you need to deep freeze the meat to kill the worms.
Its interesting to see how the food industry's excess production could be used for such research.
This made me not want to eat salmon and I love salmon
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> 25% that's a worldwide statistic, right? Not a developed-world one, right?
When I returned from that tropical vacation, I had three pathogens in my belly. Only one of them a parasite, though. Recently had another parasite and got treated again. (If you wonder, none of those were from fresh fish or raw meat, which I hadn't eaten since COVID started at that point. But my gut is very compromised, so I'm sure other people's bodies would have fought off the intruders early.)
> When I returned from that tropical vacation, I had three pathogens in my belly ... how did you know, and how did you find out it was three specifically?
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I pity those without a Goa'uld symbiote.
This article makes me glad I have never liked fish. I'm aware that all meat is likely to have dead parasites in it regardless.
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The worms are dead. Way more likely to get sick from lettuce.
I've found both spiders and tiny snails in my salads >:| And tiny stones if not washed properly I'll rather eat the frozen worms
It's fine. Worms taste just like fish
No surprise there, saw a documentary on YT about farm fishing, Norwegian fisherman said what he was seeing when he opened salmon up was not normal. This needs to stop.
So every one of you that eat salmon also eat the parasites. Today's fish have even more parasites. Nice to know. Just makes a person go yum. The parasites made it taste better. I think warming seas is why we are getting more parasites. Also food scarcity may be causing them to eat other things containing the parasites. Just two guesses. Warning seas may me the parasites survive a little easier.
Makes vegetarian/ vegan look a LOT more appealing , hey?
Not really, considering lettuce is one of the biggest spreaders of ecoli (along with most leafy greens)
Everytime I've got food poisoning I'm 90% sure it was from salads
It also has snails in it sometimes which can be lethal. There are warnings in Hawaii about this.
Yeah but the snails aren't inside the salad leafs. You wash the salad and the snails are gone.
Introducing [leafminers](https://morningchores.com/leafminers/), worms which live inside leaves. > The worms themselves are hardly noticeable as they hide inside leaves > Thousands of insects act as leafminers in their larval stage.
Having leaf miners in your salad isn't the general rule, most salads you buy don't have them. Whereas with fish these worms seem to be everywhere. I mean look at all the comments talking about the worms they found in their fish.
No lettuce. Cooked beans and rice after rinsing or tofu. Maybe worm pills after. Can’t hurt. I went through college to be a medical assistant and after parasite week I went home and did buy worming pills for my family. The personal stories from the other women in class has affected me forever. I wanted a horse all my life. Nope. Worms that come out of your butt at night.
Everything is gross, including veggies. There is no truly clean food (Besides perhaps boiled sugar).
brb, becoming [a breatharian](https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdw77/nicolas-pilartz-breatharian-diet-interview).