* "VHS Update Is Not Good"*
Wisconsin and now it can be more or less said that Lake Superior now
has VHS....latest report....
By DON BEHM
[email protected] <mailto:
[email protected]>
Posted: May 12, 2007
The deaths last week of hundreds of sheepshead in Lake Winnebago and
Little Lake Butte des Morts signal the presence of a virus responsible
for massive fish kills in Lakes Erie and Ontario, a state official said.
In a development that surprised Wisconsin natural resources officials,
the virus was confirmed in the water of the Lake Winnebago system of
lakes along the Fox River.
It can kill many other fish species in the chain of lakes, even
threatening the population of ancient sturgeon that thrive there, said
Sue Marcquenski, fish health specialist with the state Department of
Natural Resources.
The unchecked spread of the virus throughout Wisconsin waterways
threatens the state's $2.3 billion sport fishing industry, which
supports more than 26,000 jobs in the state.
The Lake Winnebago system supports North America's largest
self-sustaining population of lake sturgeon and boasts the world's
oldest program to manage their population, which began in 1903.
"We didn't expect to find the virus in the Winnebago system first," she
said. "We expected to find it in Lake Michigan first.
"Our main concern is that this virus has caused infections in so many
other species, too, from bass to perch to muskies, northern pike,
walleyes and shad," she said. "In the next one, two or three summers, we
could lose much of those fish in the Winnebago system."
DNR Fisheries Director Mike Staggs asked anglers and boaters to help
stop the spread of the virus to other lakes.
"This is a major fish health crisis," Staggs said Saturday. "We have to
take aggressive steps now and enlist the help of the public to stop this
spread.
"Nobody wants to see this disease get into more of our lakes."
DNR offices received reports of dead and dying sheepshead, also known as
freshwater drum, in Lake Winnebago beginning May 8. The kills extended
from Taycheedah on the south to Asylum Bay, north of Oshkosh.
Dying sheepshead were retrieved Wednesday and Thursday and were to be
tested for the virus, Marcquenski said.
Two sheepshead taken May 2 from Little Lake Buttes des Morts tested
positive for the virus - the first infection to be confirmed in
Wisconsin inland waters. At that time, a DNR crew reported dead and
dying drum washing over the dam at Menasha separating Lake Winnebago
from Little Lake Buttes des Morts.
The Lake Winnebago sheepshead looked similar to the two confirmed with
the infection: swollen and bulging eyes, reddened fins, reddish tint to
skin, she said.
For that reason, Marcquenski expects that tests will confirm the virus'
presence in Winnebago. Those results might be available as early as
Wednesday.
"The virus could have been in Lake Winnebago at high concentrations for
at least two weeks," she said. It was detected in the Great Lakes for
the first time in Lake Huron in 2005.
A year later, the virus caused a sheepshead kill so large and widespread
in Lake Erie that the fish piled up on shore in windrows stretching for
miles, she said.
Staggs asked anglers to drain water from boat bilges and so-called live
wells used to store fish, as well as bait buckets and other containers,
before driving away from a boat landing.
Anglers and recreational boaters are asked to report large numbers of
dead fish or fish with bloody spots to a local DNR fish biologist or
conservation warden.
Lock ordered closed
Staggs on Saturday ordered the immediate closing of the boat lock around
the dam at Menasha until an investigation provides more information
about the spread of the virus up the Fox River to the lakes.
Concern for the health of sturgeon prompted testing of tissue samples
taken from 60 sturgeon in Lake Winnebago in February. The virus was not
found at that time.
State fish experts suspect the disease is also in Lake Michigan, Lake
Superior and the Mississippi River.
Last month the state enacted emergency rules to prevent the spread of
the virus to inland waters. The rules prohibit anglers and boaters from
moving live fish, and requires them to drain their boats and live wells
before leaving Wisconsin's Great Lakes waters, the Mississippi River and
those waters' tributaries up to the first dam.
The rules do not apply to the Lake Winnebago system, but anglers were
urged Saturday to begin following them.
The DNR said it's unclear exactly how the disease is spread, but it
appears it could be shed by infected fish into the water, particularly
by fish that survive the disease and become carriers.
The virus can infect fish of all ages. It might enter a fish through the
gills or in food.
Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
25 Species At Risk
Among the most susceptible fish:
Walleye, spotted musky, yellow perch, bluegill, northern pike smallmouth
bass, crappie, muskellunge, round gobies and some sucker species.
Emergency Rules
Do not ...
Let water from your boat, trailer, bait buckets, coolers and other
containers move between any fishing site location on Lake Michigan, Lake
Superior, the Mississippi River or their tributaries.
Transport live fish, including bait fish, away from any Great Lakes or
Mississippi River drainage landing or shore fishing location. This
includes tributaries up to the first dam.
Use "cut" or dead bait from other waters (except when fishing in Lake
Michigan, Green Bay or tributaries).
Use minnows unless they were purchased from a Wisconsin bait dealer or
you legally caught the minnows from the place you are fishing.
A public hearing on the rules is set for 5 p.m. Thursday at the DNR
offices, 2300 N. King Drive.
