Concerned about Safety of Harvested Salmon After Warm Season

Observation by Carol Oliver:

We dried fish and then had the hottest temperatures. We are kind of leary about eating what we dried, even though we had them under a roof, after all that heat. There were also a lot more flies than normal this summer and it was too hot for drying fish. We had to be careful the did not get burned by the sun. Some of the fish we could not eat because it looked bad.

Comments from LEO Editors:

We have received a number of observations about how unusual weather conditions can make preservation of fish and other subsistence foods challenging. Warmer summer temperatures can make keeping fish cool during transport more challenging. Too hot or too wet and fish do not dry properly. In some places, people are developing innovative ways to help preservation along, which include shading drying racks from the sun and rain and using netting and wood smoke to discourage insects.

To prevent foodborne illnesses from fish, make sure that you keep fish cool (<40 °F) right away after they are caught and cook fish properly before eating. Examples of diseases that can occur from eating fish that are not appropriately cooled after harvest or cooked before eating include scombroid, anisakiasis, and diphyllobothriasis. Mike Brubaker