Viral Disease Killing Great Lakes Fish

  • Commercial fishers and biologists are concerned about the impact a viral disease will have on the Great Lakes fishery. There have been some large fish kills. Live fish commerce has been restricted to help prevent the spread of the disease.

A disease is spreading, causing large fish kills in the Great Lakes.
Biologists and fishery officials are working to prevent further spread of
the disease, but there’s a conflict between government agencies. Lester
Graham reports there’s also a cost to businesses that deal in live fish:

Transcript

A disease is spreading, causing large fish kills in the Great Lakes. Biologists and
fishery
officials are working to prevent further spread of the disease, but there’s a conflict
between government agencies. Lester Graham reports there’s also a cost to businesses
that deal in live fish:


The disease that’s killing fish is called Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia — or VHS. Jim
Diana is a fish biologist at the University of Michigan who’s been looking into what
it
does to fish…


“So, it’s a virus that the fish pick up and the virus causes really kind of a
general systemic
deterioration. Most notable, sometimes they’ll develop sores or lesions on the
outside of
the body, but they often will die without really external evidence at all.”


Basically, the fish die from internal bleeding. For several years there have been
die-offs
in the St. Lawrence River, which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. But
researchers weren’t able to confirm the cause was VHS. Then this past summer in Lake
Saint Clair — the lake near Detroit that lies between Lake Huron and Lake Erie —
Jim
Diana says fish die-offs were confirmed to be caused by VHS.


“And since then, they’ve found it in quite a few other species, something like 20
other
species, so it’s quite widespread.”


It’s not clear how the virus got here. But… it originated in Europe. Researchers
guess
that infected fish hitchhiked in the ballast tanks of a ship… or a live fish shipment
escaped into the St. Lawrence River and it’s spread from there by ship.


Biologists say the spread of VHS is not good. It’s not expected to wipe out fish in
the
Great Lakes. But it is causing some real concern.


“We’re not talking about a couple of fish here, we’re talking about large fish
kills. And
VHS is present in those and implicated in the deaths of those fish.”


Marc Gaden is with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Gaden says because stocking
fish is a big industry… there’s a lot of fish shipped between the U.S. and Canada and
between one state and another.


“So, in the Great Lakes basin there is a movement of fish, fish eggs and other fishery
related things like water that’s used in the fish stocking trucks, things like that.
There’s
aquaculture that occurs, fish farms in the Great Lakes basin. The Departments of
Natural Resources harvest fish eggs to use in their stocking programs and the fish
themselves are stocked. So, there’s movement of fish and fish eggs throughout the
Great
Lakes basin just as a normal part of fisheries management and commerce that occurs.”


So the chance that the virus can be spread by all those fish moving around is
significant.
The federal government thought it was such a risk that it banned all fish shipments.
The
states quickly appealed that. They said it was overkill. They persuaded the feds
that they
were doing enough testing that the chances that VHS would be spread were slim.


So, the feds backed off a bit. But restrictions are still causing some problems. For
example… live fish that are not going to be put back into the lakes… live fish that
are
headed for dinner plates at restaurants still have to be tested. And VHS poses no
risk to
human health.


Ted Batterson is the director of the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center at
Michigan State University. He says he knows one fish farmer whose business is
supplying rainbow trout to restaurants.


“Well, now to be able to do that, he has to have the certification that these are
VHS-free.
It takes him currently, with the laboratory he’s been sending these to, up to 90
days to
get the certification that these are disease free. Well, that is not timely because
these
people who want fish at the other end need them in essence like yesterday, not 90 days
down the road.”


Another business hit by the restrictions on moving live fish is the bait industry.
If the
bait industry has to test –for example—one out of every 50 fish… and the test costs
about
50-dollars… no one will be able to afford to sell bait fish.


The states and the feds are still trying to figure out how to prevent the spread of
VHS…
without hurting the businesses that rely on live fish shipments any more than
necessary.
But… some businesses are already feeling the squeeze.


For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

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Farm Animal Breeds Going Extinct

More than a thousand breeds of farm animals are at risk of going extinct.
That’s according to a new report from the United Nations. Rebecca Williams
reports the UN says globalization is the main reason for the extinctions:

Transcript

More than a thousand breeds of farm animals are at risk of going
extinct. That’s according to a new report from the United Nations.
Rebecca Williams reports the UN says globalization is the main
reason for the extinctions:


Some livestock breeds aren’t being raised as much anymore. That’s
because most farmers only want the breeds that can produce a lot of
meat in a short period of time. Fewer breeds means a smaller genetic
pool. So the whole population of livestock isn’t as robust.


Irene Hoffman is with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
She says a larger gene pool protects livestock from things such as new
diseases.


Hoffman says consumers have a large role in keeping breeds alive.


“The first strategy is always to keep animals in production to keep
them economically competitive.”


But it can be hard for consumers to find these rare breeds. It takes
extra effort.


The report says in just the past 15 years, 190 livestock breeds have
gone extinct.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Limited Green Choices From Automakers

The annual season of major U.S. auto shows is underway. And this year, the
hot trend isn’t about horsepower or towing capacity. It’s about saving you
gas at the pump. But as Dustin Dwyer reports, the rhetoric is still ahead
of the reality:

Transcript

The annual season of major U.S. auto shows is underway. And this year, the hot trend
isn’t about horsepower or towing capacity. It’s about saving you gas at the pump.
But, as
Dustin Dwyer reports, the rhetoric is still ahead of the reality:


At the Los Angeles Auto Show, some promises were made by auto companies about
building cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.


The problem is that, so far, the big gains have only been in a few specialized
vehicles, not
across the board.


David Friedman of the Union of Concerned Scientists says auto companies are making
some progress on cleaner technology. But he says the real test is whether they can
improve efficiency across all types of vehicles.


“Right now if you’re a mother of three and you need to have all those three kids in
car
seats, you probably need a minivan. A compact car won’t work for you. And yet, if you
walk into the showroom today, your choice for a minivan is what 20, 21, maybe 23 miles
per gallon? That’s no real choice.”


The next chance for the automakers to unveil new gas conscious vehicles comes later
this
month at the Detroit Auto Show.


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

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New Tools to Detect Bioterrorism

A new study finds that the air you breathe could be teeming with more than
1,800 types of bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports the research might help
protect against bioterrorist attacks:

Transcript

A new study finds that the air you breathe could be teeming with
more than 1,800 types of bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports the
research might help protect against bioterrorist attacks:


This is the first time researchers have used DNA sequencing to study
bacteria in the air. They wanted to find out what’s normal and what’s
harmful.


Federal officials are hoping to improve on the way they test the air for
potential bioterrorism agents.


Gary Andersen is the lead author of the study… published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says the
current monitoring system tests the air above most major U.S. cities
for specific pathogens. He says the new research will make that
system better.


“To see not just whether or not these specific handful of pathogens
were present but what actually was the microbial composition in the
air and that also may give some clue to as whether things are normal
or suspicious circumstances.”


Andersen says the research will make it clearer whether or not people
are actually in danger.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

Airports Make It Hard for Airlines to Recycle

  • Many airports don't offer airlines recycling, so all those soda cans and other recyclables are going into landfills.

A new report finds most airlines throw away their empty soda cans and other
recyclables. Mark Brush has more:

Transcript

A new report finds most airlines throw away their empty soda cans and other
recyclables.
Mark Brush has more:

The environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, surveyed around 30
airports and airlines about recycling. They found that most don’t do it. The group
estimates the airline industry trashes about 80% of the materials it
uses.

Allen Hershkowitz is with the NRDC. He says that they found the airports with the
best
recycling programs also save the most money:

“In some cases over six figures annually were saved were save by those airports that
had
the highest recycling rates. So really, in this particular case, economic cost
cutting and
ecological intelligence work in a mutually reinforcing way.”

Hershkowitz says airlines are often at the mercy of the airports they fly into. If
there’s no
recycling program in place they have a difficult time sorting out all their used
paper, cans
and bottles.


For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links