"Sightings of dead fish again are being reported by citizens as well as biologists of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Department of Environmental Quality. The number of rivers the reports have come from is small, but "significant numbers of fish with lesions" have been noted, according to the game and fisheries agency. The discovery of dead or suffering fish mirrors those of past years, but scientists recently found a link between aeromonas salmonicida - a bacterium found in diseased river fish - and lesions and/or deaths of experimentally infected laboratory fish. The source of the bacterium and how it is transmitted are keeping the state biologists busy. This has been an ongoing riddle, and no one has been able to pinpoint the source of the problem. Most of the affected fish thus far have been smallmouth bass and sunfish, and with warming water temperatures the fish kills are not likely to disappear." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet