From Great Lakes Wiki
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Associated Press
Traverse City, Mich.- Responding to industry complaints, the federal government has modified restrictions on shipments of some live Great Lakes fish aimed at preventing the spread of a deadly aquatic virus.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service last week revised an emergency order it issued Oct. 24. The order had banned interstate transport of 37 species of live fish from the eight states adjoining the Great Lakes. Importing those species from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec also was prohibited.
The revised order allows some fish to be taken across state lines with proper documentation, under conditions that vary depending on how they will be used.
Fish meant for slaughter or research must be sent to approved facilities that properly dispose of waste fluids and carcasses. Those with other purposes must have been tested and found not to carry the virus.
The order targets viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, which poses no risk to humans but causes internal bleeding in fish. VHS was discovered in the region last year and is blamed for fish kills in lakes Erie, Ontario and 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.
See the entire article
Back to Commerce
