Whirling disease update
It's still not here, but how long can we last?
By Clive Schaupmeyer
How long can we remain free of whirling disease,
and are we already living on borrowed time?
According to Alberta's fisheries biologists they were again unable to
find whirling disease in our wonderful trout streams last year. But with
all of the budget cuts, just how much checking is really going on? Likely
very little. I never saw any biologists on any of the streams I fished
last summer, and none of my friends reported seeing any either. Of course,
this is not a criticism of the biologists and other staff in the Fish and
Wildlife Division of Alberta Environmental Protection. Budgets have been
hammered for a decade now and there simply is not enough money to pay for
real protection of our fish and wildlife resources. Another story for another
time.
I don't think about whirling disease too often when on the stream. But
I got the scare of a lifetime one day last fall on the Crowsnest River.
It was during one of the two trips John and I took in late September and
again in early October. I was up in the Dog Run and saw an 8-inch rainbow
flopping and wriggling by. It was clearly in distress. But I was unable
to get to it in time before it reached some faster water and was carried
down toward the Electroshock Hole where John was fishing. Later I mentioned
it to him, and he had seen it too. Later we told Vic Bergman at the Crowsnest
Angler Fly Shop. Vic thought it was most likely injured by a an angler,
hawk or osprey. Likely. But still, it was a grim reminder of the constant
threat we face from whirling disease.
So officially we don't have whirling disease in Canada, and we want
to make sure it stays that way. But here's what scares the daylights out
of me.
Whirling disease thrives in streams just hours away in southern Montana.
I could fish in southern Montana in the morning, and wade into the Crowsnest
River in southern Alberta for the evening rise. If I had been fishing in
a Montana stream infested with whirling disease I would almost certainly
infect the Crowsnest with this dreaded pest that was carried in the mud
on my waders!
It's that simple folks. At least it's reportedly that simple, but some
argue that it is not spread so easily. They claim that it should have spread
to our rivers by Canada Geese or other birds that are common inhabitants
of both sides of the USA-Canada border. Perhaps.
Can geese (that wade the shores of southern Montana streams) fly non-stop
to southern Alberta? Surely they would rarely do this without resting along
the way and presumably rinsing mud off in ponds and sloughs. The majority
of southern birds (that could carry the disease) would end up on the Great
Plains of Alberta where there are few trout. But I admit there are a lot
of geese and other birds, and this has to be a real possibility, if not
highly probable.
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March 22nd, 1999
