Great Lakes fish farmers angry over interstate shipment ban

[Lee Borgersen]

Great Lakes fish farmers angry over interstate shipment ban
By John Flesher
AP Environmental Writer
October 27, 2006 6:46 PM
A government crackdown on live fish shipments from the Great Lakes states is intended to check the spread of a deadly aquatic virus, but critics say it casts too wide a net and could devastate parts of the region's fishing industry.

In an emergency order this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service banned interstate transport of 37 species of live fish from the eight states adjacent to the Great Lakes. Importing those species from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec also was prohibited.

The agency's target is viral hemorrhagic septicema, or VHS, which poses no risk to humans but causes fatal internal bleeding in fish. It was discovered in the region last year and is blamed for fish kills in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake St. Clair and the St. Lawrence River.

Among species susceptible to the virus are popular sport fish such as chinook and coho salmon, rainbow trout, walleye and yellow perch.

Federal officials said it was uncertain how the virus, long a problem in Europe, reached the Great Lakes. But state fishery managers believe it came in ballast tanks of oceangoing cargo ships, considered a leading source of exotic species such as zebra mussels that are damaging the lakes' ecology.

The federal agency has scheduled a meeting with state and industry representatives for Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to discuss regulations aimed at containing the virus.

The emergency order "just puts everything on hold until we can figure out what we're going to do," spokesman Jim Rogers said.

But some in the region said they were blindsided by the order, which could be especially hard on commercial fish farms and live bait vendors. It also could hamper stocking programs essential to the region's $4.5 billion fishery, critics said.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources sent the federal agency a protest letter Friday.

"This order will completely eliminate long-established trades of sport fish between state agencies that are crucial to the maintenance, restoration and enhancement of sport fish programs" in the region, acting director Sam Flood wrote.

Dan Vogler, who raises rainbow trout in Harrietta, about 30 miles south of Traverse City, said the order had taken away 70 percent of his customers. He sends fish live to other states for sale in restaurants and markets, and for stocking lakes and rivers.

The virus hasn't been detected on any fish farm in the Great Lakes region, Vogler said, and his operation has been certified as VHS-free for years.

Michigan has 47 fish farms, with combined sales of $2.4 million in 2005, the USDA says. Nationwide, aquaculture is a $1.1 billion industry.

Greg Oswald, president of the Minnesota Aquaculture Association, said his business could lose $600,000 this year and more in 2007 if the interstate ban continues.

His fathead minnows are sold for sport fishing bait across the nation. Industry spokesmen said the ban could mean live bait shortages and higher prices.

Dealers who supply bait shops in Ohio buy about half their stock from other states, said Fred Snyder, an Ohio State University extension agent. Ohio's trout farmers get young fish to raise from other states.

Meanwhile, trout farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin have millions of pounds ready for stocking lakes elsewhere.

"All of a sudden they can't move these fish," Snyder said. "These people are going to be financially devastated."

The National Aquaculture Association, a fish farming trade group, asked the government for regulations to help prevent the virus from spreading, said its president, Randy MacMillan. He said the association didn't request the emergency order but understands the need.

It could take the federal agency two or three months just to write interim rules, MacMillan said. "In the meantime, the movement of potentially infected live fish would continue."

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ John Flesher is the AP correspondent in Traverse City and has covered environmental issues since 1992.

[jigglestick]

it's never pretty when you take away someones lively hood. especially when they are doing quite well in the buisness. years and years of trade relationships may end up down the drain when their markets find other resources :-\