Regulators are worried about a fish disease found in the lakes that could spread to other areas. Federal officials are trying to figure out the next step after banning certain shipments of fish in the Great Lakes Region. Dustin Dwyer has more:
Transcript
Regulators are worried about a fish disease found in the lakes that could spread to other areas. Federal officials are trying to figure out the next step after banning certain shipments of fish in the Great Lakes Region. Dustin Dwyer has more:
The disease is called viral hemorrhagic septicemia. It can cause fish to bleed internally and die.
The disease is harmless to humans, but federal regulators say it could lead to massive die-offs for up to 37 different species of fish, so they’ve stopped fisheries in the eight Great Lakes states, and two Canadian provinces from shipping those species over state lines. The ban only affects live fish.
Jim Rogers is a spokesman with the US Department of Agriculture. He says the ban is meant to stop the spread of the disease while officials figure out what to do next.
“Now eventually that federal ban is going to lift, and we are going to be allowing movement. But right now we just can’t do it with the threat of this disease hanging over us.”
The fishing industry in the Great Lakes has been valued at more than $4 billion a year.
For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.