Underwater video of pilchards dying due to herpesvirus infection

These videos were taken in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, by NIWA divers in September 1995 during the worlds largest fish kill event, an epizootic caused by an incursion of an unknown exotic herpesvirus that was later named pilchard herpesvirus (PHV). The virus had high host specificity, infecting only the gills of pilchards, (Sardinops sagax neopilchardus), and resulted in the death of hundreds of millions of pilchards over a range of 6000+ km in southern Australia and New Zealand in 1995, with a repeat epizootic occurring over 4000 km of coastline in Australia in 1998-99, in both instances killing an estimated 60-75% percent of the pilchard population, with obvious downstream effects on fishes and birdlife that feed on pilchards.

[@ikijime]

I uploaded this video from my archives as there appears to be no footage of the actual clinical signs shown by the diseased fish during this unprecedented fish kill event. It is evident that affected fish are dying due to dysfunction of the gills - note the presence of other unaffected species of fish (spotty wrasse etc), showing the problem was not an algal bloom etc.

[@ikijime]

for more information see fish.gov.au/reports/Documents/Whittington_et_al_2008.pdf