Tag: whelan

Virus Spreads to More Fish & Waters

A disease that’s killing fish in the Great Lakes region is spreading;
and, as Richie Duchon reports, it’s infecting more and more species:

Transcript

A disease that’s killing fish in the Great Lakes region is spreading;
and, as Richie Duchon reports, it’s infecting more and more species:


The disease is called Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, or VHS. It weakens
fish immune systems, and they often die of organ failure and internal
bleeding.


Gary Whelan is with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He
says the disease is here to stay:


“We cannot stop the disease. That’s very unlikely. It will continue
to spread. But we certainly can try to keep it out of sensitive fish
populations and out of inland lakes to our best that we can.”


Whelan says that includes not moving fish or water from lake to lake.
Just last month, VHS was confirmed in two popular sport fish in Lake
Huron.


Whelan says the virus could make it to Lakes Michigan and Superior this
year.


For the Environment Report, I’m Richie Duchon.

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New National Board Aims to Protect Native Fish

A new, national effort to protect aquatic species and habitats could bring needed cooperation between state and federal agencies. Individual states aren’t able to deal with the problems themselves, but say the newly-formed coalition of partners might help. The GLRC’s Kaomi Goetz reports:

Transcript

A new, national effort to protect aquatic species and habitats could bring
needed cooperation between state and federal agencies. Individual states
aren’t able to deal with the problems themselves, but say the newly-
formed coalition of partners might help. The GLRC’s Kaomi Goetz
reports:


The goal of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan is to clean up the
nation’s rivers, lakes and coastal areas. It also seeks to protect the more
than 800 different kinds of native fish from extinction. The plan is based
on an earlier successful model focused on the nation’s waterfowl.


Federal agencies, industry, tribal and non-profits groups have signed on.
So have several state Department of Natural Resources. Gary Whelan is
with the Michigan DNR, one of the agencies that’s signed on.


“When you’re trying to deal with things like water quantity in a system, and you
have a 100 dam owners you’re trying to communicate with, a couple
(state) agencies can’t possibly do that, nor do we have the financial
resources so you really need a broad-based coalition of people.”


Whelan says the initiative will mean a lot more money for states to
address water quality problems and fish habitat.


Organizers are creating a national board to coordinate all the efforts.


For the GLRC, I’m Kaomi Goetz.

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