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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | BRIAN MULHERIN - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
[email protected] 843-1122, ext. 348
ROGERS CITY — Boaters who don’t drain their boats as they leave the water this summer may be ticketed, DNR Fish Production Specialist Gary Whelan said Friday at a meeting with the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association.
As part of an emergency order to slow or halt the spread of the fish disease viral hemorrhagic septicemia, boaters in Michigan are required to drain all water from their livewells, baitwells, on-board coolers and bilges when their boat leaves a body of water.
“Don’t move water over land,” Whelan said of the key to keeping the virus out of inland lakes.
While VHS is at its core a biological problem, keeping it out of inland lakes is a social challenge, Whelan said.
Conservation officers will patrol the state’s boat ramps this summer to make sure the regulations are followed. Creel census personnel are also expected to help spread the message about the dangers of moving water from lake to lake, he said.
He explained that anglers moving their boats from lake to lake in the same weekend should either dry their boats for four to six hours in sunlight or wash down their boats with a light bleach solution mixed at a ratio of a half cup to five gallons.
Only one inland lake in Michigan, Budd Lake north of Clare, has been shown to be infected with VHS. Whelan said that lake most likely contracted the disease that wiped out scores of crappies, bluegills and even muskies from infected live bait or from a “bait-bucket biologist” who moved gamefish to Budd Lake from a VHS-infected body of water.
Whelan said the DNR has stepped up monitoring of inland lakes this summer, following the general guideline of looking closest at the lakes that got zebra mussels first.
In late May, Wisconsin officials announced they had confirmed positive tests for VHS-infected fish from Lake Michigan. One of the fish was a smallmouth bass from Sturgeon Bay and another was a brown trout from farther south. At this time, Lake Michigan is still considered a VHS surveillance zone by Michigan officials, but Whelan said that can be expected to change in the not-too-distant future.
Once Lake Michigan is part of the VHS-infected waters, anglers won’t be able to transport bait from the Lower Peninsula or from the Lake Michigan watershed of the Upper Peninsula to waters in the Lake Superior watershed, which is still considered VHS-free.
Whelan said the virus most likely came to Lake Michigan via ballast water, since the strain in the Great Lakes closely matches one from the maritime region of Canada. There are concerns that Duluth, Minn., which has the second-highest ballast water exchange rate on the Great Lakes, will be the next place the virus shows up. If that happens, the virus will get into the Mississippi River system.
But the one silver lining to the virus spreading to lakes Michigan and Huron, Whelan said, is that it has brought the problems associated with ballast water into the headlines again. It might just be the event that finally triggers some real ballast water controls, he said.
“Of anything I’ve seen in my career to deal with ballast water, this is our best opportunity,” Whelan said. “We will never see an opportunity like this again.” | |
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Posts: 1270
| This is a good idea to do but unless you wash out all your water sources with bleech and wash down your boat hull with bleech it's really just lip service. Let's have all of us fishermen do this and then let the ocean tankers dump millions of gallons of balast into the lakes. Am I missing something here? | |
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Posts: 332
Location: Michigan | Every little bit helps. The least it can do is aware unknowing anglers/boaters of the problem. | |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | reelman - 6/5/2007 9:06 PM
This is a good idea to do but unless you wash out all your water sources with bleech and wash down your boat hull with bleech it's really just lip service. Let's have all of us fishermen do this and then let the ocean tankers dump millions of gallons of balast into the lakes. Am I missing something here?
Yes, you are missing something... the tankers don't go into the inland lakes! Sure they have brought a number of invasives into the Great Lakes but it's the angler and recreational boater that takes them to the inland lakes.
As far as cleaning goes - you need to bleach anything that will stay wet between lakes which means bilge areas, livewells, etc. If the area that was exposed to water will dry completely before you go into another water it will kill VHSv, boat hulls aren't an issue.
Here's some food for thought... The FLW walleye trail was on the Detroit River (VHSv positive) in April then on the Mississippi River in May for the past two years. Where did those guys go between the DR and Mississippi? How many went and pre-fished the Mississippi the next weekend? Do you think any of them might have gone from the DR in April of 2006 to Winnebago?
I'm not pointing fingers at the FLW or the walleye guys. I'm just using them as an example of how quickly we (anglers) can spread things like VHSv.
Edited by Will Schultz 6/6/2007 2:16 PM
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Posts: 1270
| I agree that we should do everything possible to control the spread but steps should be taken to stop these invasives from getting over here in the first place.
As for bleeching your boat what about the carpet on a bunk trailer? These things stay wet for quite a while and could transport the virus yet they would be almost immposible to bleech.
I know you aren't blaming the FLW boys but by mentioning them some people will think that they are the problems as some people take any chance they can to blame tournaments for anythign they can. THere are a ton of boats going from Erie to every lake in Wisconsin every spring. | |
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Location: 31 | I was thinking the same thing on the bunk carpet. I have a 50/50 bleach solution in a spray bottle for the net and thought about squirting some on the exposed part of the bunks b-4 launching when I switch lakes.
Thanks for the update Will! | |
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VHSv - Drain your boat or get a ticket.