Not good

[The Fisherman Guy]

Whirling disease now confirmed in the Upper Bow.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...-national-park

[Dr.Shortington]

Has this ever happened before? What kind of implications are we looking at? This is not good at all!

[Albertadiver]

just saw this in the news as well.

I wonder if it can be contained?

[Bemoredog]

This is terrible. It also means that fish won't be stocked until the facilities test negative for the disease.

[McLeod]

Be aware that several lakes in Banff are now CLOSED !
These are lakes and tributaries that have Cutties !

[pikergolf]

Was going to post a link under the very same title, good thing I had a look first. This could be very bad for Ab. and the Bow, anyone have any insight into the disease?

[Heavy K]

Originally Posted by McLeod

Be aware that several lakes in Banff are now CLOSED !
These are lakes and tributaries that have Cutties !

Hey McLeod,

Do you know if the presence of the parasite has been proven at all of those sites, or are they just being closed as a preventative effort to potentially protect Westslope core habitat?

HK

[ReconWilly]

Puke.

The bow connects to the highwood which connects to the sheep, further down at the forks the water is connected to the old man drainage and on and on it goes.

Puke.

[WildCats]

All fish farms have been shut down as of last week as well.

[Bemoredog]

Is there any real way to stop this?

edit: by stop I mean the disease.

[waterninja]

Originally Posted by McLeod

Be aware that several lakes in Banff are now CLOSED !
These are lakes and tributaries that have Cutties !

If they are closing the lakes, I hope that means closed to ALL watercraft, not just people who are fishing.
Sounds like this disease was introduced to the lake from a contaimanated boat, canoe, whatever.
EDIT... After a quick google study, I have to add that another big culprit for the cause & spread of this disease is from fish farms, though I'm not sure how it would start there to begin with.
In any case, this has the potential to be very tragic for Alberta trout fisheries.

[wildbill]

Aw man, what next? Very unfortunate.

[McLeod]

Originally Posted by Heavy K

Hey McLeod,

Do you know if the presence of the parasite has been proven at all of those sites, or are they just being closed as a preventative effort to potentially protect Westslope core habitat?

HK

Only confirmation is Johnson and the Bow River. The other waters have been closed for both protection at this time and testing. So yes preventative.

[McLeod]

Originally Posted by waterninja

If they are closing the lakes, I hope that means closed to ALL watercraft, not just people who are fishing.
Sounds like this disease was introduced to the lake from a contaimanated boat, canoe, whatever.
EDIT... After a quick google study, I have to add that another big culprit for the cause & spread of this disease is from fish farms, though I'm not sure how it would start there to begin with.
In any case, this has the potential to be very tragic for Alberta trout fisheries.

All recreational water-activities including fishing, boating, swimming, etc. in the these waters and outlets.
Wading across a stream to stay on an official trail is permitted where there are no bridges across.


Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WSCT) are listed as a threatened species in Canada, and are one of the fish species susceptible to the disease. This restriction is in effect to protect critical WSCT habitat from the whirling disease parasite. It will remain in effect until alternate management strategies are implemented.

The risk factors for spreading the disease include (in descending order) the movement of: fish, mud/sediment, aquatic vegetation and water.

[Heavy K]

Originally Posted by McLeod

Only confirmation is Johnson and the Bow River. The other waters have been closed for both protection at this time and testing. So yes preventative.

Thanks man. I figured some of those would have to be sentinel sites for field testing. Let's hope we can limit some of the damage. Our "honeymoon" free from the nastier aquatic invasives here in Alberta is now over.

[Wazzy]

It's highly likely Whirling Disease has been present in our waters for several years. Nobody knows for sure. To my knowledge, this is the first time they've ever tested for it. I find it hard to believe it just suddenly appeared and a lucky "Parks Official" caught the disease in the very preliminary stages by spotting a fish at Johnson lake exhibiting telltale signs of the disease.

[McLeod]

I agree with you.. And I would be it started in the Bow and spread into Johnson...

[Bemoredog]

I did some research on the disease for those interested:

• It infects both adult and juvenile trout, but tends to only affect young trout because it feeds on their abundance of soft cartilage. Mature trout lack this soft cartilage making them much more resistant to the diseases' effects. This also means adult trout can be infected but not show signs of the disease.

• Larger populations of trout seem to be more resilient to the disease due to greater genetic diversity. This conclusion is based on the different outcomes in trout populations in the Madison River and Holter Dam Montana. The Madison River trout populations were decimated in the 90s to below 500 fish per mile from 2,500, but have since made a comeback to around 2,000 fish per mile. The fish populations in the Holter Dam area, although showing infection from whirling disease, have remained fairly stable.

• Brown trout are highly resistant to whirling disease and effects on populations in Montana were negligible. Rainbow and Cutthroat are much more susceptible to the disease and populations of these fish crashed in Montana when the disease broke out.

• Small, isolated populations of trout (e.g., cutties, goldens and bulls in high mountain ponds and streams) are highly vulnerable to the disease not only because of their lack of inherent resistance, but also due to the lack of genetic diversity that results from such small and isolated populations.

• Some biologists believe that warm, low water levels encourage the disease to spread while colder and higher water levels impede it.

• There is no cure or magic bullet. Prevention appears to be first and last line of defense.

• So long as exposed trout populations are not completely wiped out they will develop greater resistance to the disease over time (5 to 10 years). As mentioned, larger populations seem to be less adversely affected than smaller populations.

• Studies in Montana seem to indicate that about 10% of Rainbow and Cutthroat trout have genetic resistance to the disease.

• The window in which the disease must take hold is very limited--only infecting fish that are between 1 and 2 inches long. After this the fish are safe from the disease.

• Whirling disease spores are most prevalent when water temperatures are around 7 to 13 degrees celcius.

[bergman]

What this means for anglers is CLOSURES.

First, to prevent the spread of whirling disease, and

Second, to allow affected fish populations to rebound.


Looks like we are looking at about a five to ten year moratorium on fishing in Alberta after populations crash. Maybe the Newfoundlanders can give us some advice? Or at least some commiseration...

[Sedativ3]

Had to take a looks back at some old photos from Johnston showing some deformities on the few rainbow trout I caught.

This was 3 years ago. Thoughts?

[cube]

Originally Posted by Jet

This is negligence. Alberta stopped testing water bodies for Whirling in 2001.

Had they been testing chances are it would been caught and could have been dealt with a lot sooner, before it got into the Bow.

Doubly condemning is that they haven't been testing the fish hatcheries when these hatcheries are getting water from rivers/lakes, then they distribute them around the province. I.E. If one hatchery is contaminated, they've spread it to numerous locations. Testing for diseases in fish at the hatcheries regularly should be a requirement in any sane system.

It would have been far more productive to spend the money on testing than the boat program IMHO.

Heads should roll.

Ah the Klein years of decimation.

What makes you think thy no longer test at the hatcheries? Pretty sure they still have their provincial Fish Pathology Lab that routinely tests samples from all the hatcheries.

Yes I am still aware of hatcheries being a great way to spread disease and hence is the primary reason very little stocking is done in this province, except for land locked pot hole lakes.

[cube]

Can you point me in the direction of the press release?

Thanks

[cube]

Originally Posted by Jet

They haven't been testing since 2001, either Alberta or Parks Canada.

Quoted from Bill Hunt, Executive Services and Media Relations / Resource Conservation Manager, Parks Canada.

1:50min in on this:
http://globalnews.ca/video/2962904/w...western-canada

Enjoy.

Thanks Jet.

Did not sound like they were not testing provincial hatcheries or fish, just water.

I am pretty confident that the Provincial hatcheries are still tested multiple times every year, tough I am not sure about private fish farms as that would cut into the profit margins.

Do you know if Banff stocked any of those waters since 2001? If so who did they get the fish from?

[McLeod]

Parks stopped stocking in 94

[McLeod]

lol..yes you are right it was 88..I was thinking about the year..94 ..when I caught my last stocked fish in Jasper..A BIG rainbow. There has been some illegal stocking last of which I hear around 2008..lol