Lake Michigan fishing fortunes received a severe blow Friday when the Illinois Department of Conservation decided to destroy nearly one million fingerlings affected by infectious enteric redmouth (ERM) disease.
Intensive testing indicated that the disease was not present in salmon and trout fingerlings being developed by neighbor states, except in Wisconsin, which had to destroy a class of brook trout. It was therefore assumed that tremendous damage would result if the infected fingerlings were released into the lake.
Rich Hess, the DOC`s Great Lakes fisheries program manager, said biologists would eliminate some 500,000 chinook salmon due for stocking this fall, some 340,000 coho salmon destined for next year`s planting and all 100,000 brown trout at the state`s Jake Wolf fish hatchery in Downstate Manito.
Hess said that roughly half the fish would be replaced by purchases from other states. Some 215,000 chinooks from Michigan have been planted in the lake off Chicago and Waukegan. Another 225,000 coho and 51,000 browns from New York already are at the hatchery.
Hess emphasized that ERM, which causes death in adult fish, has been confined to the interior of the hatchery`s starter tank building. ”We`ve never seen it outside in the holding ponds, so that`s where these new fish have been placed,” he said.
The losses will be evident in reduced catches when the fish are scheduled to mature in three to four years.
The disease first appeared in Illinois last year, when the DOC was forced to kill some 550,000 chinooks.
