January 22, 2026 — Opening a can of worms may prove the answer to a salmon fishery researcher’s question, especially dead anisakid, roundworms found in old cans of wild Alaska salmon.
Results of the initial study on what four decades of canned salmon reveal about marine food webs were released in the spring of 2024. Now using new grant funds, Natalie Mastick of Arizona State University is again collaborating with Chelsea Wood at the University of Washington to further explore the history of marine parasites to determine the impact on the health of a marine ecosystem.
The current research award from the North Pacific Research Board in Anchorage began in the summer of 2025 and runs through December 2027, Wood said.
According to the Seafood Products Association in Seattle, parasites can reduce the growth, survivorship, and marketability of commercially important marine fish species, particularly in Alaska.
While finding worms in salmon fillets, even dead ones, may cause concern, their presence is not a threat to human health and often signals that the fish originated from a healthy marine ecosystem. High-pressure canning, including the timing and temperatures involved, kills the parasites.