The recent forest fire smoke that choked our region appears to have had a deadly effect on pond Koi. For insurance purposes I am attempting to establish a connection between Koi die-off and smoke/ash pond-contaminants. Have suffered any losses?

No loss of my Koi in either of my ponds. I did however cover them from the falling ash. I am sorry you lost your fish.

I am unaware of anyone in the Salem area who lost koi due to the ash fallout. Closer to the fires could certainly have caused a problem by suffocating the fish, either by coating the gills or by sealing off the pond from the air with an oily ash coating. The worst cases of course were where the power supply was out and there was no water circulation.

What is a fancy scientific word for explaining that gill thing?