Effort in Door County to Save the State's Chinook
WBAY-TV Green Bay-Fox Cities-Northeast Wisconsin News: Effort in Door County to Save the State's Chinook
"We know Lake Michigan is infected with VHS, and we suspect our fish have been exposed to it and might even be carrying it, so we are being incredibly careful on what we do with these fish," Peeters said.
The state has already had one VHS scare at its hatcheries earlier this year and doesn't want another one. Biologists say it would be devastating if the virus turned up there.
To make sure it doesn't, the DNR set up a bio-secure area in which only one staff member is allowed in.
All the eggs are disinfected in an iodine solution for 15 minutes. Then right when the eggs show up at the hatchery, they'll go through the same process one more time, just to be safe.
"If you were to have surgery or give blood, they scrub human skin down with iodine and it kills any viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungus particles. Kills 99.9 percent of them," DNR fish hatchery manager Steve Fajfer explained.
Concern remains high over VHS. Fajfer says it's "the unknown, what's going to happen long-term, what other species it may affect, how badly it's going to affect walleyes and muskies, the unknown."
Which is why so much attention is being paid to the salmon of the future.
