UNDER THE SEA

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about

Zombie salmon are the true ‘living dead’ and now is the time to see them, experts say

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says "zombie salmon" are fish that are literally rotting to death as they end their long migration route to spawn. Zombie salmon, as they’re called, are alive and still swimming, yet in the slow process of rotting to death, experts say. To prove it, wildlife officials posted a grisly photo on Facebook of a live salmon with its face festering as it’s rotting off.

“When salmon return to their natal streams to spawn, they stop eating and put all their energy into reaching their spawning grounds to reproduce,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted on Tuesday. “As a result, their bodies begin to shut down, turning them into spooky #zombiefish.”

• Though “scary,” as one Facebook commenter put it, these “swimming dead” are not a threat to people and ”can’t spread zombie disease to humans,” the wildlife service reports.
• Terms like “zombie salmon” and “spawn of the dead” took off on social media five or six year years ago, as anglers began sharing photos of misshapen and fanged Pacific salmon that resembled monsters more than fish
• “Folks call ‘em zombies since they are damn near (if not already) rotten by the time they get up here to lay their eggs,” Brett Benton wrote on Facebook in 2018.

The National Park Service reports the Brooks River in Alaska's Katmai National Park had a record breaking year for salmon, with 800,000 crammed into a mile and a half of water. BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

This Jekyll and Hyde transformation involves their silver flesh blushing to red, loss of body fat, contraction of their stomach and the deterioration of their internal organs, according to a 2018 government report. Male Pacific salmon even “grow fearsome teeth and hooked upper jaws that they use against each other,” the report says.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service eventually made the slang official with a report that acknowledged the trend and confirmed there is a decomposing “zombie fish” out there that can “resemble the living dead.” “Decaying flesh, hooked noses, sharp teeth: No they aren’t zombies, but they are nearly dead,” the service wrote. “They aren’t very pretty, but they are vital to the health of waterways.”

Most die within days of spawning, though a few can last “a couple weeks at most,” the service says.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Facebook post comes not long after Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska reported a record breaking season for spawning salmon. It’s estimated 800,000 salmon jammed themselves into a mile and a half of the Brooks River as part of their spawning ritual this month, McClatchy News reported this week.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking