Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/34818
Appears in Collections:Aquaculture Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Fish mortality associated to volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands
Author(s): Caballero, María José
José Perez-Torrado, Francisco
Velázquez-Wallraf, Alicia
Betancor, Mónica Beatriz
Fernandez, Antonio
Castro-Alonso, Ayoze
Contact Email: m.b.betancor@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: volcanic eruption
El Hierro
La Palma
decompression syndrome
gas bubbles
ashes
hyaloclastites
impaction
Issue Date: 16-Jan-2023
Date Deposited: 17-Jan-2023
Citation: Caballero MJ, José Perez-Torrado F, Velázquez-Wallraf A, Betancor MB, Fernandez A & Castro-Alonso A (2023) Fish mortality associated to volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands. <i>Frontiers in Marine Science</i>, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.999816
Abstract: The Canary Islands are an active volcanic archipelago. In the last decade, volcanic activity has occurred twice on the youngest and western most islands: El Hierro (submarine eruption) in 2011-12, and La Palma (subaerial eruption) in 2021. 70 fish specimens of different species from El Hierro volcano and 14 from La Palma were necropsied. A notable high and early mortality of fishes was registered during the submarine eruption of El Hierro. In most of them, generalized congestion in the gills, liver, spleen, kidney, heart and rete mirabile of the swim bladder was observed. Some specimens also presented exophthalmia, gastric eversion, ocular haemorrhages, over-inflation of swim bladder and gas bubbles mainly on the skin and cornea. The eruption of La Palma volcano was characterized by the emission of large amounts of lava flows and pyroclastic deposits (mainly ash in size) both, on land and sea. Lava flowed on land and eventually reached the sea, forming lava deltas in the coastline of La Palma. This event was also associated with an increase in fish mortality in locations near to the lava deltas. Fishes presented ash particles in opercula/oral cavities and gills. In addition, several fishes presented an intense intestinal impaction composed of volcanic material including ashes and hyaloclastites fragments. To our best knowledge this study describes, for the first time, pathological findings in dead fishes associated with two different styles of recent volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands.
DOI Link: 10.3389/fmars.2022.999816
Rights: Copyright © 2023 Caballero, Perez-Torrado, Velázquez-Wallraf, Betancor, Fernández and Castro-Alonso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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