Overview
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists captured an unusually yellow burbot during a routine aquatic survey in Oswego Harbor this week.
- State and federal offices attribute the color to xanthochromism, a rare genetic pigment anomaly that produces yellow-orange skin instead of the species’ normal gray or olive tones.
- U.S. Geological Survey biologists found the specimen emaciated and in poor health and sent it to Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine for a detailed veterinary analysis.
- The find is the first burbot documented during a fisheries survey in Oswego Harbor and is notable because burbot usually live in deeper, colder waters and are currently very scarce in Lake Ontario.
- Researchers hope the veterinary tests will clarify whether disease, contaminants, food scarcity, or other stressors are affecting burbot and that those results will inform basin-wide monitoring and management actions.