Document text
56 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 2, 2005 Biologists take steps to protect chinook from IHN By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Sport-anglers fishing off the Cole Rivers Hatchery dike soon may see restricted access to the hatchery and may be asked to bag the Rogue River spring chinook salmon they catch to help stave off a potentially deadly virus outbreak there. The coming changes are part of an effort to keep sport-caught spring chinook from potentially transferring infectious hematopoietic necrosis, or IHN, from the river to any of the 4.3 million small salmon and trout now in hatchery rearing ponds. IHN has not been detected yet in Rogue spring chinook, but it was found earlier this month among winter steelhead, prompting stepped-up concerns about infections. Biologists fear someone carrying a gutted salmon through the hatchery accidentally could taint the water supply, exposing the young fish to the naturally borne virus. The virus can be present in the blood, ovarian fluids and a salmon’s slimy outer coating. Though deadly to the fish, it is harmless to humans, pets and other animals. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife may also provide hundreds of plastic bags on the dike — the most popular salmon-fishing hole on the entire Rogue — so anglers can be as clean as possible. Advertisement Also, public access from the hatchery parking lot to the dike could be restricted to a single path. Anglers now can meander throughout the rearing ponds and concrete raceways there. "We don’t even know for sure whether there’s IHN in the chinook, but we’re trying to do everything we can to reduce that risk," hatchery assistant manager David Pease said. Pease said the ODFW has no plans to close fishing access to the dike, where hundreds of anglers at times fish shoulder-to-shoulder for chinook in the last fishing spot before the salmon enter the hatchery. There also are no plans to cut public access to the hatchery or the water supply to the rearing ponds, Pease said. "I don’t think any fishermen out here would want to accidentally do something that would put a big dent in our production," Pease said. "I’m hoping they’ll take a little extra effort and care for us to avoid it." ODFW fish pathologist Jerry Jones said no tests have been done to determine if the virus is being carried by spring chinook now heading toward the hatchery. "I’d sort of hedge my bet that they’re going to be" infected, Jones said. Chinook likely would have to be killed for testing, or the agency could test fluids from sport-caught fish, Jones said. IHN typically does not kill adult fish, which are carriers, and rarely is passed on to their progeny. However, IHN in water supplies can be deadly in the hatchery environment. The virus was discovered in the hatchery’s hatch-house water supply in 1989, leading to the killing of 350,000 spring chinook eggs to stop the disease’s spread there. Since then, a more sophisticated filter helps keep water clean. Also, hatchery workers bathe freshly spawned eggs in an iodine solution, and they now are disinfecting clothing whenever they come into contact with fish. The discovery of IHN in winter steelhead prompted the ODFW to halt the release of excess winter steelhead into Applegate and Emigrant lakes. The excess steelhead now are killed and shipped to Wildlife Images Rehabilitation Center in Merlin, where they are fed to the center’s bears and other wildlife. So far, 1,677 adult winter steelhead have been killed and shipped to Wildlife Images, Pease said. Biologists know little about what triggers an IHN outbreak, Jones said. "We don’t know whether these fish are picking it up in the ocean or in the river," Jones said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Auto Insurance Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Advertisement s