Anglers Along the Susquehanna River are Hooking Fish with Mysterious Black Splotches

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

April 2, 2012 | 11:56 AM

An editorial published last week in Northumberland County’s The Daily Item, speculates about the cause of disfigured fish living in the Susquehanna River. Apparently, fish covered in “black splotches” have been turning up in the river since the fall.

People who know the Susquehanna River best are worried. That alone may be reason enough for the rest of us to give pause. If not, the photos in Sunday’s edition of The Daily Item will do the trick. Since fall, three or four of every 10 fish caught by anglers in the Susquehanna River have turned up with alarming black splotches.

The AP also reported that the Fish and Boat Commission has asked the Corbett Administration to launch an investigation into the ailment that seems to be affecting small mouth bass in the river. On Friday, State Rep. Kurt Masser told The Daily Item, he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery and meet with officials from the Fish and Boat Commission. In the meantime, comments to the editorial mentioned above speculate that frack water discharges could have poisoned the fish. Others say it may be due to pharmaceutical discharges, or acid mine drainage. A spokesman for the Fish and Boat Commission told The Daily Item that the splotches don’t “seem to harm the fish.”