Trout Unlimited And Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources Needs Our HELP!!!

[Driftless]

I spoke to Kim McCarthy this weekend. Kim is the Wisconsin State President of Trout Unlimited.

TU and WDNR needs angler input on GILL LICE

What stream and county did you find them?

What percentage of brookies are infested?

Kim and WDNR needs this information.

Gill Lice could become a epidemic to the brook trout population.

Please make a sticky at the top of the general section

The rest of the sites have a no stream naming rule.

This site does not.

I have Kim's personal email and will be sending him the info.

[Driftless]

Crawford County

plum...

crow...

halls...

sand...

pine...

Richland

hall bottom

knapps

Vernon

Seas branch

weister

[ted4887]

I was pretty sure you were squarely against TU. Why the change of heart? Better put this in your slideshow.

[Driftless]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Report gill lice to these 2.

[Driftless]

I was pretty sure you were squarely against TU. Why the change of heart? Better put this in your slideshow.

Your Information is obviously flawed.

Dave Fowler Treasurer Nohr Chapter

Todd Hanson from TU Trout Magazine

Mike Barniskis the President of Leupold Chapter on the left. We fish often.

Danny Boggs former Blackhawk TU President

[ted4887]

Well then.... My apologies

[hookncook]

with a 5 page research paper under way, one of my teachers launches a bombshell. A grant proposal and research proposal to be done in 3 weeks. I guess though summer school will be over, I suspect that I will have to still do research and turn it in!

I chose gill lice and the declination of natural brook trout. So far research has brought me to the conclusion that gill lice are a natural parasite found in the driftless region. One official I spoke with is a MN naturalist and did a study on brook trout populations last year. He revealed to me he found significant gill lice in several brook trout communities throughout Minnesota.

My proposed idea is that gill lice do not affect brook trout unless the water quality decreases to below survival standard, the fish becomes stressed from the declination of the quality, and the parasite does not infect the introduced and prolifically invasive species brown trout.

I also want to propose that streams that brook trout share water with brown trout see a significant decrease in brook trout populations because when the trout do expire or face a natural or unatural die off, the brown trout take that foot hold. This would make the brown trout a pioneer species.

I would like to see data that a stream that contains brook trout exclusively contain and thrive despite gill lice.

I am currently awaiting information packet from the US Fish and Wildlife on the different species of gill lice and their habitats and life cycles.

I hope in my findings that I can prove that the perpetual introduction of brown trout into these streams are causing significant harm to the native brook trout. I also want to show in a separate study, the social economic impact that brook trout have in comparison to brown trout.

[Driftless]

Len Harris

to Matthew, Susan

Hello Matt and Susan,

I ran in to Kim McCarthy over the weekend and he updated me on the gill lice problem.

Kim said there are 2 types of gill lice present. One is an invasive species and the other a native.

Kim suggested I take samples of the gill lice I find and send them to one of you two along with data where they were collected.

How would I store the samples for shipment and where should I send them?

I hope this Gill Lice problem is solved soon. Our native species deserve our ongoing attention.

Len Harris

[Driftless]

Brook trout are the native species here in Wisconsin. They were here when the first settlers came. They have been a resident here since the last Ice Age. Approximately 25 years ago there was a big die off of brookies. None of the experts could put their finger on the problem.

With the help of local fishing clubs coop raising the brookies every year and the DNR working hard on the brook trout population the brook trout had a remarkable "Renaissance" about 20 years ago. Dave Vetrano a Fish Manager "retired" almost single handily brought back the brook trout to Southwestern Wisconsin. Dave retired last year.

Eight years ago things began to change. In streams that I could catch 50 brook trout in a half day's outing, I noticed a decline in the brook trout population. I typically don't fish for brook trout. They typically are a lot smaller than my preferred target brown trout and much easier to catch because of their aggressiveness. The underlying reason I decided to chase brook trout was because of the hybrid cross between a male brook trout and a female brown. This trout is called a "tiger" trout and I have only caught 21 tiger trout in my entire life. Most states have stocking programs for tigers. Wisconsin's waters were so good that the hybrid happened on its own in our pristine streams. I have caught only one tiger in the last 3 years.

I began my own informal and unscientific research on the subject. I examined the few brook trout left in my favorite streams and found weird things attached to the brook trout's gills. It appeared to be some form of parasite. I took a photo of the gills and started my quest to see what was happening with my brook trout. The parasites did not attach to browns. I spoke to many local trout anglers and even a couple guides to see if they had seen the same sharp decline in the brook trout population. ALL of them had seen exactly what I had seen. I decided a little more formal of an investigation was needed.

I went to the WDNR HSOforum and got some email addresses for some people in the know about brook trout. I sent out a mass emailing to all the addresses that I could find that I thought could help me with the problem. I attached a photo of the brook trout's gills. I received an email back almost the next day from a WDNR official called Matt Mitro.

Matt Mitro of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources "Trout Scientist" informed me that there have been many reports of Gill Lice on brook trout in South West Wisconsin. Matt had noticed the same decline in brook during the shocking examinations of streams the WDNR does often. They are parasites that attach to brook trout gills. They will not kill trout by themselves but in conjunction with another stressful event they can cause death to brook trout. They are NOT harmful to humans. Brook trout can be eaten with these parasites attached to their gills. Anglers do not eat the gills and the parasite does not go in to the flesh of the trout.

I asked Matt what to do if I found more gill lice. He asked me to contact him and tell him where I found them. He also told me that there was no real way for the WDNR to remove this parasite from the waterways. Matt asked me to pass on that beaver dams were a good place for the parasite to infect other brook trout. He suggested an email to your local Fish Manager telling where beaver dams were so the WDNR could remove them.

Matt said that trout could be individually dunked in a solution to remove the Gill Lice but if the trout went back to a population of brook trout it could be re-infected. Matt said that anglers could be the hosts for cross contamination of trout streams by fishing a stream with Gill Lice in it and having the parasite attach itself to the angler’s waders/boots/gear and go to another stream in the same 24 hours and infect that stream. Matt suggested a one percent bleach solution on the waders and gear to clean them before going to another stream. This answer pacified me until just this spring.

The Gill Ice I was finding was pretty much only found in Crawford County. I was on my way home from my mother's in Crawford County and saw a hatch at a beaver dam on my way home. The stream was in Richland County. I casted in this beaver dam 15 times and caught 10 brook trout. Each one of them was loaded with gill lice. I stopped fishing because in my mind I was the added stress the brook trout didn't need and I was killing each trout I caught. I decided a few more emails were in order.

When I got home I sent an email to all the WDNR fisheries people I could find. I even sent an email to the head of fisheries Mike Staggs. I got an email back from a WDNR Fish Health Specialist the next day.

I am the Department's fish health specialist and Mike Staggs asked me to respond to your e-mail regarding gill lice affecting brook trout in Wisconsin streams.

You are right, gill lice (a parasitic copepod called Salmincola edwarsii) can cause significant physical trauma to the gill filaments, causing deformities which affect respiration and the efficient uptake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide, ammonia and other metabolites. Fish that are heavily infected cannot obtain sufficient oxygen when they are exercised, such as when they are caught by angling.

Gill lice have a direct life cycle- when the egg sacs release nauplii, they immediately molt and become the first copepodid (larval) stage and they have about 24 hours in which to find a new host and anchor onto the gills and continue their development. After several molts, the copepods reach maturity and remain permanently anchored in the gill tissue. This is a significant stress especially when more than one parasite is attached to a gill arch.

In streams with dense brook trout populations, the success rate for the larvae to attach to gills increases due to the greater chance of contacting a fish within the 24 hour "post hatch" period. Streams with faster water flow (velocity) can make it harder for the larvae to successfully attach. So fish density and water velocity are two factors that affect the prevalence and intensity of infection by Salmincola edwardsii in a stream.

A third factor that may play a greater role in the future is temperature trends. Gill lice are invertebrates and therefore their development is proportional to the water temperature of the stream. If water temperatures increase, the parasites will develop to maturity faster and will then be able to reproduce one or more extra "generations" each year. Because the copepods remain on the fish, the affect of more generations of parasites is cumulative and we may see far higher numbers of gill lice on individual fish in the future.

So rather than not fish the streams where gill lice are present, I would encourage people to fish and take fish home (reduce the density of the fish) as long as the fishing regulations allow this. Anything that can be done to keep water moving (faster velocity) may also help reduce the probability of larvae to successfully attach to fish.

It would take a special study to do this, but it would be interesting to compare the prevalence (percent of fish infected) and the intensity of infection (number of gill lice per fish) of gill lice in brook trout streams that have high densities with those that have low densities; those with faster velocity vs those with slower; and slightly warmer vs colder streams.

Thank you for taking the time to share your concern with us, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sue

Susan V. Marcquenski

Fish Health Specialist

WI Department of Natural Resources

Box 7921

101 S. Webster St.

Madison WI 53707

[hookncook]

wow.. with reduced flow rate of streams and in creased water temperatures, it really justifies all the hard work TUDARE is putting into the streams. Especially for the cessation of parasites and diseases.

It really seems like a chicken vs. egg scenario, but I bet in 5 years when the bullet hits the bone of this study, It'll be an interesting read.

Not a lot of data on the impact of gill lice on fish and streams in my academic research engines.

[Driftless]

Hi Len, and thanks for your note. I do not think we know for sure that there are two species of gill lice on the BKT. We want to confirm this by looking at samples from infected fish. If you would like to help, here’s what you can do.

Only collect samples from dead fish (fish you catch and take home). There is no way to remove the parasites from live fish without harming the fish. After the fish is dead, use a scissors to cut out the gill arches that have the parasites attached and place in a small container of 70% rubbing alcohol. Add enough rubbing alcohol so the ratio of tissue to alcohol is 1:10. The gills can be left like this indefinitely. Label the container with the location, species of fish and date of collection. We can arrange to pick up samples from you- just let us know.

Thanks for your interest on this Len,

Sue

[Driftless]

$75,000 in grants will aid citizen-based monitoring projects

Weekly News Article Published: June 19, 2012 by the Central Office

MADISON – Eighteen Wisconsin organizations and projects will share a combined $75,000 from the Department of Natural Resources for efforts using volunteers to carry out natural resources management projects including building bat houses and monitoring bat populations, assessing eagle populations, checking brook trout for gill lice and collecting rain, hail and snow totals.

http://dnr.wi.gov/news/weeklynews_print.asp?id=2197

[Driftless]

I have been sending in lots of data to Susan.

Anyone else helping the cause?

[Driftless]

public input wanted on how we are to progress?

http://dnr.wi.gov/master_planning/DriftlessStreams/