First cases of fish disease found in Lake Michigan

[News]

Trout near Algoma has tested positive

By Karen Lincoln Michel

Press-Gazette Madison bureau

MADISON — The first cases of the deadly fish disease known as VHS have been found in Lake Michigan, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday.

DNR Secretary Scott Hassett told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that a brown trout washed up on shore near Algoma in early May and has since tested positive for viral hemorrhagic septicemia, making it the first recorded case of VHS in the western Great Lakes.

"We're not aware of any fish kill, or anything of that nature," Hassett said.

He said the disease's spread to Lake Michigan is not surprising.

"We did our emergency rules in April in anticipation that this would happen because it was in the Eastern Great Lakes," he said. "We assumed it was in Lake Michigan."

On Thursday, the DNR also got confirmation that some of a 40-fish sample of smallmouth bass taken recently from routine fyke net survey work in Little Sturgeon Bay tested preliminary positive for VHS. None of the fish had any clinical signs of the virus.

Paul Peeters of Sturgeon Bay, the DNR's Lakeshore Fish Team Supervisor, said he submitted samples of additional species to the lab earlier this week for VHS testing.

"We suspected it was here, and now we know it's here," said Peeters. "It's time to focus our intentions on keeping it from getting into other (inland) waters."

Peeters said it's important for people to realize this is a disease of fish, and that there's no human health risk from eating a fish that might carry the virus.

It's possible the DNR will hear about more dead or stressed fish after a busy holiday weekend of boating traffic. Peeters said it's not as important seeing a single fish now, though he still likes to hear from fishermen.

Just last week the DNR announced that VHS had been found in Little Lake Butte de Morts and had entered the Lake Winnebago System.

The agency has reported that the disease causes fish to bleed to death, and that once the disease has been detected in an area it cannot be eradicated.

Hassett said he's unsure how widespread the disease has become.

"It doesn't mean the whole lake is going to get it … because it's a tremendously large body of water," said Hassett. "We expect to see different pockets or areas that pick up the infection, if it's anything similar to what's happened in the Eastern Great Lakes."

[GLF]

We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

While I was cleaning fish last Saturday at Muskegon, another fisherman was there cleaning his fish. One of his fish had an extremely large lamprey looking mark on the under side behind the gills. Now that I think about it....There was a fish weighed in at the first West Michigan Fishing League event at Port Sheldon that had a similar large mark.