Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

 :o Here it is. Per APHIS. Read thoroughly to understand that this is for the catch and release of.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/aquaculture/downloads/vhs_fed_order_amended.pdf

Thanks for jumping on it Jag. I did not even get an alert notice from APHIS that it was out. I looked yesterday morning and then talked to one of the vets later that morning and he told me 'some type of amendment' would be out by next week. It was hard to get an answer since most of the APHIS people were on the road the 2nd half of this week.

Amazing that they actually moved faster than they said. It looks like we can have our tournaments now, but I'll read it again tomorrow when I'm more awake to make sure I'm comprehending correctly.

I'm pretty impressed that the federal government even did this amendment to help us out. I have felt that the people I've talked to at APHIS all seemed friendly and helpful.

There will probably be an interim rule released sometime this summer that will be the next step, but I would expect it to include this amendment. The interim rule is the last step before the final rule is released in the federal register.

One other thing, we should be expecting to see some type of policy/statement from the Michigan DNR next week regarding protecting our resources within Michigan waters. I don't now much in the way of details yet, but the thing to remember is that it will be an attempt to keep the VHS virus from moving in water (livewells, bilge, etc.) and/or fish from infected waters to uninfected waters.

The MDNR has been working and reworking their statement to do as good a job as possible in protecting the resource from further VHS infection while not impacting fishing opportunity more than necessary. They have made public verbal and written statements very supportive to anglers and particularly tournament anglers, I'm happy to say.

Michigan has been at the center of this issue a lot of the time. We just need to continue to get good info from good sources. There has been some misinformation printed and repeated already such as the 'stopping of all stocking' in Michigan or the closing of all hatcheries that was reported several times. There were some changes made regarding walleye, pike and musky rearing site and the MDNR will be looking closely to make sure they don't get VHS into the hatchery system or move it to other waters by stocking fish.

Here's a link to the news release that explains the reason for the amendment - should make us all feel pretty good that they would do this for all of us:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2007/05/vhsfedor.shtml

Check the GreatLakesBass.com VHS page (http://www.greatlakesbass.com/conservation/vhs.html) for full details on the revision that allows tournament movement of fish across boundaries, and information from the MDNR that we'll have to watch too. I'll post a notice as soon as the MDNR position is posted, hopefully this coming week.