Anyone know what is growing on the herring in salem harbor. I'll try to get a picture of one, but an entire school hanging by the dock has a reddish moss growing off their tails and fins.
Are you talking about the long, thin, red strands? If so, it's a parasite... Seen them all over bunker in the Providence river. Pretty sure it's Lernaeenicus radiatus, a type of copepod, but I'm not 100% on that one. They're just one of the most common Clupeid parasites.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's directly linked to the warm water.
That and the schooling tends to guarantee that if one fish gets it, they'll all get it.
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