Just spent the day at a Sea Grant Regional Fishery Workshop in Ludington. There were lectures on Sea Lampreys in the Great Lakes, potential use of biodiesel, internet charterboat reporting, an update from Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Viral Hemorrhagic Septicimia - VHS, Progress on Commorant Control, and a discussion concerning the need for an increase in hunting and fishing licenses.
VHS - Whoa!!! This is a new virus that has significant implications for all those that fish. The new emergency rules coming out will definitely affect tournaments that fish St. Clair and Erie where fish are brought back over state and national boundaries. The virus is the confirmed killer of a number of species this past spring in Lake St. Clair. VHS causes large scale hemorrhaging in internal organs and interferes with osmotic regulation. Gary Wehlan the MDNR rep who led the discussion likened VHS to Ebola in humans. He did stress that the virus is not a human pathogen and you could eat the fish infected if properly cooked. The virus does the most damage in temps ranging from
40-50 degrees (around 14 degrees C). The spread of the virus looks almost certain and the prediction is it will make it around to Lake Michigan in 2-4 years, unless careless boaters transfer bait fish or or transport the virus in bilge water which would of course spread the disease very fast. The virus looks to last several days in bilge water and 2 weeks in the gonatal tissues. The good news is that equipment left in the sun to dry and or are rinsed in a mild bleach solution will kill the virus. Temperatures of 58-60 degrees seem to be the limit of its viability. There are fish that act as carriers of the virus and it is not known at this time which fish species are more prone than others to die from the virus.
Confirmed cases of VHS were found in St. Clair muskies, Lake Erie Drum and Perch, and in gobies in Lake Ontario. The virus does not present many external symptoms. If you clean a fish just caught and the liver and kidneys look very bloody and suspicious do not freeze the fish, put it on ice and contact the DNR. Studies to detect the virus are best done on live fish, or on very fresh fish.
There look to be new emergency regs readied for dissemination soon. They will most certainly will involve live bait and the transfer of fish. They are working to get more information out and will do so prior to spring fishing. The DNR website will have more information soon.
Some scary stuff that we are now stuck with. For the time being please be sure you are using the strategies that are already in place to protect from spreading any exotic.
Not all of the seminar was as gloomy. The information concerning biodiesel was intriguing. Dennis Donahue from NOAH - GLERL talked about running B100 which is 100% soy bean biodiesel fuel in a number of NOAH vessels and boats. Not only bio fuels but bio oils in the steering, transmission, and crankase. These units undergo an inexpensive conversion and then can use soybean or canolla oil. B100 is 100% soybean, B15 Diesel is 95 diesel and 5% soybean oil. He also talked about there using 225 Evinrudes converted to run on 100% ethanol this past summer. Very interesting and there were the substantial "green" upside and only a little downside, such as an increase in nitrogen oxide which is a green house gas that they hope to reduce as they experiment further.
Rambling too long, but they did also have some interesting things to say about commorant control that has begun in certain areas, brown trout initiatives, sea lamprey, and discussion on why we should all be getting behind the increase in licensing fees.
Thanks for the post Dan. I'm preparing a 'campaign' to remind all anglers through whatever means I can come up with not to transfer fish from the Great Lakes to inland lakes.
Bass anglers have to stop their own private 'stocking' programs to help keep VHS from getting into inland waters.
More information to remind not to spread any exotics.
Everything I've read so far on VHS does not affect bass anglers from moving bass around Lake Erie and St. Clair. The ban was for moving fish raised elsewhere such as bait and commercially raised fish to stop them from being moved where they could get into our lakes/rivers. It didn't address wild fish already in the waters. I believe there was fear that bait or commercially raised fish were moving the VHS virus.
The MDNR and others got the feds to change the plan so that we have more control over the situation locally with a more realistic plan. Of course, we need to meet certain obligations to keep the feds from coming back in again. I do have to continue talking to the MDNR about this to see where exactly they want to take it. We had a pretty good opening talk with some of the Fisheries division at the Novi tournament permit meeting.
Working on getting my conservation page up for these kinds of issues to keep everyone up to speed as much as possible.
The USDA Wildlife Services has instituted commorant control measures in a number of areas around Michigan. They started in the Les Chenneaux Islands and their efforts have made a significant differences in the recovery of the perch fishing there. They have started projects in Thunder Bay and the Bays De Noc. They have been running into problems getting on property which is thwarting their efforts. In the discussion, it appeared that the Ludington area has a significant commorant problem and they hope to get the USDA's help. Not spending the time on the east side I was wondering what your commorant populations are there. Are there rookeries? They can really cause environmental damage to trees. They showed how they have been killing trees in a old grove cedar stand on South Manitou Island. So they are not just killing fish but also trees when they nest in them. One issue the USDA stresses that we pursue the control without giving groups like peta any press by letting locals get too kill commorant happy. Management has to be the focus.
Pretty big population out on Little Charity Island in Saginaw Bay. Out in the islands on Lake Erie too although I don't recall exactly where.