Whirling Disease in Trout a Focus in Utah! AP Story in NYT

[Woolly Bugger]

We're getting more press about this serious issue...

A disease that can deform trout, cause them to chase their own tail and eventually lead to their starvation will get special attention this year from legislators, who want to try to reduce its effects on commercial and recreational fisheries.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Whirling-Disease.html?_r=1&oref=login

[Silver Creek]

How about when a state department of wildlife KNOWINGLY stocks infected fish? You think this would never happen. Then you don't know the idiots that run the CDOW.

For years the state of Colorado stocked trout from their state hatcheries with whirling disease into public waters. They spread the disease because they didn't want to spend the money to shut down their hatcheries for sanitization. I'm sure unwitting Colorado fishers spread the disease to other states and to Colorado rivers that were uninfected.

Here is a quote from Trout Unlimited on Colorado's stocking of diseased fish from this web site: http://www.tu.org/site/pp.asp?c=7dJEKTNuFmG&b=308888

"In Colorado, however, the state Division of Wildlife (CDOW) continued to knowingly stock whirling disease-infected fish from its hatcheries into streams and lakes. Soon the disease had spread to nearly every basin in Colorado. In 1996, TU convinced state hatchery managers to discontinue stocking infected fish in most areas. The state continued stocking in what were termed "low risk" waters, primarily high country lakes and reservoirs."

"Still, TU was determined, pointing to findings that showed that in areas where infected fish had been introduced, infection rates were high, as were areas downstream. And in areas upstream of infected stocking or in areas where that practice had been stopped, infection rates were lower. Finally, the CDOW reached the conclusion TU had supported for years, and in November 2000 announced a new whirling disease policy that will curtail the stocking of infected fish in all Colorado waters until 2002 and terminate it altogether by 2003."

Then when a private hatchery in Colorado does the same thing it gets fined. Do ya think he got the idea it was OK because the CDOW stocks infected fish? The CDOW are a bunch of idiots. If I were a Colorado fly fisher, I'd hide my face. Don't come to our state without sanitizing your equipment, because it's just about impossible to fish Colorado without getting your equipment infected.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20051007/RECREATION03/51007004

He had to pay the following fines: "A two-year investigation and prosecution led to Babcock's criminal convictions and fines and restitution of $30,000. The fines include $4,800 to the federal government, and restitution of $15,000 to the state of New Mexico, and $10,000 to the Colorado State University Research Foundation to be used for whirling disease research."

Isn't it ironic that he had to pay the state of Colorado a $10,000.00 fine for doing exactly what they did for over 10 years? Heres the URL that contains the quote above: http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu/newsletter/nwsltr_v2_1.htm

Now Colorado has changed its policy but even their web site notes that 8/9 of their state hatcheries have tested positive for WD. Check out this site for Colorado. Only in the last few years have they decided not to stock diseased fish.

http://www.whirling-disease.org/Map/sur_abc.html

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Fishing/Management/WhirlingDisease.htm

http://hotchkiss.fws.gov/current.htm