Note: Still under Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection quarantines are a 1,000-plus spotted muskies
DNR approves salmon stocking for Sturgeon Bay
Specialists find no sign of deadly fish virus in samples
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/app ... 07/GPGnews
By Kevin Naze Press-Gazette correspondent
Fisheries supervisors at Sturgeon Bay and the Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery got the green light to prepare a half-million chinook salmon for stocking this week pending visual health checks.
Sue Marcquenski, the state Department of Natural Resources fish health specialist in Madison, inspected samples of 3- to 4-inch salmon fingerlings from Sturgeon Bay's Strawberry Creek Thursday morning with DNR Lakeshore Basin Fisheries Supervisor Paul Peeters.
"They look good," said Marcquenski as she cut and tweezered her way through the small chinooks' body cavities. "No external or internal signs of VHS."
The discovery of VHS — a fish-killing virus called viral hemorrhagic septicemia — forced a freeze on fish stocking and transfers from hatcheries last month as state and federal officials stepped back to analyze the situation.
On Wednesday, the DNR got the go-ahead from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to release the chinooks. Not only do officials think there's a low risk that the fish could have been inadvertently infected when some eggs from Lake Puckaway walleyes and northern pike were brought into the hatchery before it was known that the Winnebago system was infected, the salmon are destined for water where VHS has already been confirmed. Before the freeze, about half of the year's quota had already been stocked anyway.
"That was kind of a no-brainer once you stepped back and think about it," said Mike Staggs, DNR fisheries supervisor in Madison.
Still under Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection quarantines at Wild Rose, Kettle Moraine Springs and Lake Mills' hatcheries are more than 650,000 brown trout, a half-million walleye fingerlings, 460,000 coho salmon, 100,000-plus northern pike, 26,000 lake sturgeon and 1,000-plus spotted muskies.
Testing is ongoing, and if Winnebago-system fish are clean, it's possible stocking for some species normally planted from late May to mid-June could resume late this month. Many other fish are being held for this fall's stockings.
Marcquenski said she knows of at least a half-dozen cases of fish being tested for VHS in state or federal labs right now, including a couple fish kills from new inland sources.