Great Lakes virus may be culprit for local fish kill

[Spiel]

Great Lakes virus may be culprit for local fish kill

 

April 22, 2008

Alan Morrell / democratandchronicle.com

 

 

A fish kill discovered on the shores of Irondequoit Bay could have been caused by a viral disease first noticed in New York two years ago, an official from the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Monday.

 

Officials estimate hundreds of dead gizzard shad were spotted earlier this month, said Webster Pearsall, the DEC's regional fishery manager.

 

DEC officials sent samples to the Cornell University Fish Pathology lab in Ithaca, and results are expected back by the end of the month, he said.

 

Gizzard shad are freshwater members of the herring family. Adults average 10 to 14 inches in length and weigh up to 10 pounds, and most anglers consider the fish a nuisance species.

 

Pearsall said he doesn't think the fish died from a chemical spill because gizzard shad were the only species killed and pollution would have affected other species as well.

 

Gizzard shad spawn this time of year, and the fish could have died from spawning stress, Pearsall said.

 

The other likely cause is viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has called an "extremely serious pathogen of fresh- and saltwater fish" which is emerging in the Great Lakes.

 

The disease originally was thought to be a danger only for trout and other freshwater fish in Europe; a new strain of the virus has appeared in the Great Lakes.

 

VHS is not a threat to humans, Pearsall said. He said people should keep their dogs from eating fish kill and people handling dead fish should wear plastic gloves.