Wisconsin – DNR pushing for permanent rules to stop fish virus' spread

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10/23/07 By DAN EGAN ** you do not have permission to see this link **

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is hoping to make permanent this summer's emergency rules to block the spread of a fish-killing virus that mysteriously popped up in Lake Winnebago this spring.

Nobody knows how viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, arrived in the Great Lakes region, though many suspect that the virus somehow hitched a ride on an oceangoing freighter. It has been migrating west since it was first discovered in Lake Ontario in 2005. It does not pose a threat to humans, but it has been blamed for large-scale fish die-offs across the Great Lakes region.

Wisconsin officials last winter were bracing for its arrival in state waters somewhere in Lake Michigan after it turned up next door in Lake Huron. But it somehow made a leap across the big lake and surfaced first in the Lake Winnebago system.

A likely explanation is someone unwittingly transported contaminated fish or water – or both – to the Winnebago system after fishing in VHS-infected waters somewhere outside the state.

"It could have been anybody, or any entity, moving them," said Mike Staggs, director of fisheries management and habitat protection for the DNR.

The virus subsequently turned up in Lake Michigan. It hasn't showed up in Lake Superior or in the Mississippi River basin, but because those two systems are directly linked to Lake Michigan, for regulatory purposes state officials also treat them as virus-infected.

Now, in an attempt to keep it from potentially wreaking havoc on the rest of the state's inland lakes, the DNR wants to make permanent rules that, among other things, restrict the transport of live fish from infested waters and require boaters to drain their vessels, bait buckets and other equipment before leaving virus-infected waters.

The restrictions would be expanded to any water system where the virus turns up.

That's a slight change from existing emergency rules, which would implement the restrictions statewide if the disease turns up anywhere new.

The disease has been previously found on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but the Great Lakes have been invaded by a mutated version of it. What has biologists so worried is its ability to attack so many different fish species.

The federal government has classified dozens of species as likely susceptible, and in the Great Lakes it has already turned up in salmon, whitefish, perch and musky, among others.

Yet the big fish kills that many in Wisconsin had braced for this summer have yet to materialize. About a thousand freshwater drum died in the Lake Winnebago system this spring, and a smattering of dead fish, including some commercially valuable whitefish, turned up with the infection on Lake Michigan this summer.

But experts aren't surprised by the lack of floating fish.

They say the virus, which bleeds its victims to death, does most of its damage in frigid water, and they expect to have a much clearer picture of what its invasion means to the state's $3 billion recreational fishery when the ice melts this spring.

"Everybody is just kind of waiting and holding their breath to see what we get," say Andrew Fayram, a DNR fisheries policy analyst. "I don't think we're out of the woods."

The Natural Resources Board is scheduled to take up the new rules at its meeting Wednesday.

WI – DNR going overboard on VHS rules, lawmakers complain

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03/04/08

At least two legislators say the Department of Natural Resources is going overboard with its statewide rules to keep the fish-killing VHS virus from spreading.

Aides to Rep. Scott Gunderson, R-Waterford, and Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Cascade, say they’ll fight efforts to make emergency rules passed last fall permanent.

Fish experts will discuss the matter with lawmakers on Thursday.

The current rules prohibit the transfers of fish and live bait and they make boaters dump out their water every time they leave a lake.

At first, the Natural Resources Board only adopted those rules where VHS was found in the Great Lakes and the Lake Winnebago chain.

Last fall, the board decided to expand them statewide. Because they’ll expire soon, DNR staffers want the Legislature’s rules committee to extend them at least until May.

LeMahieu co-chairs that panel. Before acting on the extension, he wants to see how willing the DNR is to scale back its limits.

His aide says there’s no need to panic anglers statewide because the virus has only been found in a couple places.

A Gunderson aide says the rules might scare anglers away from Wisconsin, thus hurting the state’s multi-million dollar fishing industry.

Christine Thomas, Natural Resources board chair, says the virus poses a big threat, too, and the state must take a comprehensive approach to fighting it.