Quinte Fishing

Hello all,

This is my first time posting to this board. I received this e-mail today and I feel it's important enough to warrant posting. This also might be my answer to why there are so many dead fish on my shore, mostly mudcats and what I called mudpuppies.

Regards Mario




The article below was in today's Globe. Have you had a problem so far
> this summer?
>
>
> Virus kills Great Lakes fish in droves
> MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
>
> ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
>
> The sights around the Great Lakes this year have been shocking, with
> massive fish kills due to the latest foreign invader to hit the water, a
> deadly virus known to scientists as viral hemorrhagic septicemia.
>
> The virus, which doesn't harm humans or birds, has had an effect akin to a
> piscine plague, killing fish from Lake Erie to the St. Lawrence River. The
> toll is in the tens of thousands, and perhaps far higher.
>
> In May, at Ohio's Sandusky Bay along Lake Erie, so many fish were dying
> that it "was described as like windrows of fish washing up on the beach,"
> says Geoffrey Groocock, a veterinarian at Cornell University in New York
> State who is tracking the virus. In the St. Lawrence River, he said,
> divers saw "dead fish all over the bottom of the river."
>
> VHS has stumped scientists. It was first detected in the Bay of Quinte
> area of Lake Ontario in 2005, although researchers have now found that a
> sick fish caught in Lake St. Clair in 2003 and preserved as a laboratory
> specimen had the disease. They don't know how the virus got into the
> lakes, the world's largest body of fresh water, when it arrived, or how
> pathogenic it ultimately will be. But they do know it is spreading
> rapidly, now affects at least 12 types of fish and is found across wide
> areas of the Great Lakes basin.
>
>
> For scientists, there is dismay that yet another foreign species has
> become established here, and one that has a worrisome characteristic; VHS
> is one of the few invaders that is a pathogenic organism, or one that
> causes an infectious disease.
>
> "This now puts us up to 183 established invaders in the Great Lakes,
> although the number of pathogenic organisms is relatively small," says
> Hugh MacIsaac, director of the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network.
> The virus has also been confirmed in Lake Ontario and Lake St. Clair, and
> has been detected in such important sports fish as muskellunge, northern
> pike and walleye, as well as smallmouth bass and yellow perch.
>
> Scientists don't know enough about the virus to determine how big a swath
> it will cut into fish stocks.
>
> Another big worry is that VHS will spread throughout the inland waters of
> North America.
>
> One possible route for infection is Lake Chautauqua, in New York State. It
> lies just 10 kilometres south of Lake Erie, but drains into a tributary of
> the Mississippi. "That's a direct route straight into the heartland of the
> U.S.," Dr. Groocock says.
>
> Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are
> working with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, as well as their
> counterparts in the United States, to determine the extent of the
> infection. Until this outbreak, the virus has been found around Japan,
> Northern Europe, and in northern Pacific and Atlantic coastal areas.
>
> Although not all fish are hurt by the virus, the picture of those that are
> is not pretty. It destroys the lining of blood vessels, causing internal
> bleeding; infected fish often have bulging eyes with bleeding around the
> sockets, pale gills, distended, fluid-filled bellies and corkscrew
> swimming behaviour.
>
> Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it is safe to handle infected fish, even
> if they are dying or dead, but it doesn't recommend eating them.Experts
> say that with the virus firmly established, it cannot be eradicated.
> Government agencies are urging anglers not to move live fish around from
> one part of the Great Lakes to another, in an attempt to slow the spread
> of the disease.

_________________
Mario AKA Green Fisher, not to be confused with Red Fisher the TV star