About 10% of our catch during dip net fishing at mouth of Kenai River was harboring these worms.

"My husband and I have been dipnetting on the Kasilof since 2014. This year we noticed more small fish than usual and all but ~5 of the 35 fish we caught had parasites."

Since Les Anderson landed a 97-pound Kenai king in 1985, the prized fish has been harder to find and smaller. Is there something we all can do to help reverse the trend?

Scientists recently announced they had found an Asian tapeworm species in pink salmon caught off the coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Listen now

Data cited by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control suggests 75 per cent of wild Pacific salmon are infected with the parasite. If fish is to be consumed uncooked, killing the parasites requires it to be frozen at -20 C for at least a week, Young said. Most commercial sushi-grade seafood suppliers freeze at -40 C.

Worms infecting fish grow four times faster at higher temperatures and manipulate the behavior of fish.

A total of 80 stockfish fillets of Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua), traditionally open-air-dried in northern Norway, was examined for the presence and viability of larval parasitic nematodes of the family Anisakidae. Anisakids (particularly those belonging to genera Anisakis and Pseudoterranova) are of public health and economic concern globally, since they are responsible for an underestimated fish-borne zoonotic disease called anisakidosis.