I
Ian Cloke
Guest
State Bureau of Fisheries chief Doug Stang humbly admits he and his colleagues have much to learn about Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, the disease linked with several recent fish die-offs in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
But Stang told attendees at the New York State Outdoor Writers Association in Plattsburgh that he's quite sure of two things about VHS.
The good news is, the fish disease poses no threat to humans. "Let me emphasize that," Stang said during his Oct. 6 presentation at NYSOWA's annual fall conference. "It doesn't affect people. It affects cold-blooded creatures, only."
On the other side of the coin, the fish virus credited with killing thousands of tiny round gobies and at least a few large muskellunge in Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands in May and June is still out there and still mostly a mystery, Stang said.
"It's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better," he summed up.
Stang, who oversees the management of all inland sport fisheries in the state, was a guest speaker at the writers' conference.
He described VHS as a disease which primarily attacks trout and other cold-water fish species in European lakes and fish hatcheries. Since it first showed up in the Great Lakes a couple of years ago it has surprised the experts by impacting warm- or cool-water species only, and to date has had no discernable impact on the trout and Pacific salmon which thrive in Lake Ontario.
Although VHS causes serious damage to a victim's liver, kidney and spleen and is often fatal, exterior signs are not always present, making early diagnosis difficult. Stang said the DEC and its research partners at Cornell University's fish pathology lab "just do not know yet" how the virus is transmitted.
So far the disease has been confirmed in tissue samples from dying or recently dead gobies, muskellunge, smallmouth bass and a sole burbot collected in the upper St. Lawrence, Stang said. Unconfirmed "positives" for the disease have been reported for about three dozen walleyes found floating in Conesus Lake in August, and for sickly emerald shiners netted in Lake Erie.
Why have all these warm-water fish been afflicted, while trout and salmon have been spared?
Stang suspects that VHS which has wrought havoc in European fish-cultural operations has mutated since its arrival in Lake St. Clair and subsequent movement through Lake Ontario.
But Stang told attendees at the New York State Outdoor Writers Association in Plattsburgh that he's quite sure of two things about VHS.
The good news is, the fish disease poses no threat to humans. "Let me emphasize that," Stang said during his Oct. 6 presentation at NYSOWA's annual fall conference. "It doesn't affect people. It affects cold-blooded creatures, only."
On the other side of the coin, the fish virus credited with killing thousands of tiny round gobies and at least a few large muskellunge in Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands in May and June is still out there and still mostly a mystery, Stang said.
"It's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better," he summed up.
Stang, who oversees the management of all inland sport fisheries in the state, was a guest speaker at the writers' conference.
He described VHS as a disease which primarily attacks trout and other cold-water fish species in European lakes and fish hatcheries. Since it first showed up in the Great Lakes a couple of years ago it has surprised the experts by impacting warm- or cool-water species only, and to date has had no discernable impact on the trout and Pacific salmon which thrive in Lake Ontario.
Although VHS causes serious damage to a victim's liver, kidney and spleen and is often fatal, exterior signs are not always present, making early diagnosis difficult. Stang said the DEC and its research partners at Cornell University's fish pathology lab "just do not know yet" how the virus is transmitted.
So far the disease has been confirmed in tissue samples from dying or recently dead gobies, muskellunge, smallmouth bass and a sole burbot collected in the upper St. Lawrence, Stang said. Unconfirmed "positives" for the disease have been reported for about three dozen walleyes found floating in Conesus Lake in August, and for sickly emerald shiners netted in Lake Erie.
Why have all these warm-water fish been afflicted, while trout and salmon have been spared?
Stang suspects that VHS which has wrought havoc in European fish-cultural operations has mutated since its arrival in Lake St. Clair and subsequent movement through Lake Ontario.