These fish live in sub-freezing waters. Why are so many getting sick?

Under intolerable conditions, fish have evolved to thrive. They make their living at the sub-zero Centigrade, freezing temperatures of the ice-filled Southern Ocean, and they keep their bodies from freezing solid by making an anti-freeze molecule in their blood.

There is a novel disease involving large skin tumors that is threatening the fish in the ocean.

A new disease that affected a lot of fish belonging to two different species was discovered by a Northeastern professor and his team. Science didn't know the pathogen at fault.

According to an author on the paper, this may be an early warning sign of the impact of ocean warming. He says that polar regions are warming more rapidly than other parts of the world.

If the scientists are correct, the stress of climate change is what caused this new disease outbreak. The discovery makes it all the more important that people are aware of the potential for climate-stress-mediated disease.

The disease outbreak was discovered by the scientists during a research cruise along the West Antarctica Peninsula. Due to an earlier accident at sea, Desvignes was asked to take over as leader of the field research team. Many of the fish caught by the team in Andvord Bay were found to have tumors.

"Occasionally you will see a fish that appears to be abnormal, appears to have a cancer or another disease, but it's very, very rare," says Detrich, who has been doing fieldwork in the Western Antarctic Peninsula since 1983.

The team collected fish with tumors for analysis. Using samples returned to the U.S., Desvignes first performed a metagenomic study to determine if a virus was causing the tumors. None were found. They discovered that the culprit was a bug.

Scientists found tumors on the skin of two fish species that were caused by the X-cell parasites. This particular X-cell parasites is a previously-undiscovered species.

It's the first example of a major disease outbreak among fishes. This has never been seen by anyone. The question is why.

The team's hypothesis is that the warming in the Southern Ocean is putting stress on the animals and this could be reducing their resistance to infections. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556

It is possible to come up with other hypotheses. It's very unlikely that someone dumped a carcinogen or other toxin in the bay where these tumors were found. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 Climate change seems to be the most probable cause.

The next step in establishing or debunking the link between warmer waters and disease would be to conduct laboratory experiments on fish that have been exposed to different temperatures.

"This is a taste of what's to come from an area that is under studied and points to the potential harm throughout the planet from diseases promoted by climate change."