With the confirmation of whirling disease in Mountain View County, area waterway-users are being encouraged to help stop the spread of the fatal fish disease.
It is not harmful to humans but can severely impact juvenile trout and whitefish, including vulnerable bull and westslope cutthroat trout populations. Mortality rates can reach up to 90 per cent, according to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officials.
"Whirling disease is a threat to some of Alberta's most iconic species. Accurate and timely testing is our first step in reducing that threat. We also need to ensure Albertans clean, drain and dry any gear that touches water," said Shannon Phillips, Alberta minister of environment and parks when the most recent infected water bodies were announced late last month along with provincial testing protocol.
CFIA officials confirmed in June that the fish disease has been detected in Mountain View County in Silver Creek, upstream of the bridge on Secondary Highway 579 and in Little Red Deer River at the confluence of the river and Silver Creek.
The latest release of confirmed detection locations brings the total to 54 in Alberta since last August, including four commercial aquaculture facilities.
Attention to the disease now is "too little, too late," says one area angler.
"We're fighting a losing battle," said Bill Windsor, an avid fly fisherman from Didsbury who is also a fishing guide and has fished the province's watersheds for 56 years.
There are no treatment options currently available for whirling disease and the elimination of the parasite in wild finfish populations is not possible, confirms CFIA.
Whirling disease is caused by Myxobolus cerebralis, a microscopic parasite of salmonid fish, including trout, salmon and whitefish.
It is not spread directly between finfish. The parasite is spread through contact between finfish and a freshwater worm (Tubifex tubifex).
The provincial government began working with CFIA last August to determine the appropriate disease control response after testing confirmed the presence of whirling disease in Johnson Lake in Banff National Park.
It was the first detection of the disease in all of Canada.
Since then, CFIA has declared the entire Bow and Oldman River watersheds as infected as well as the Red Deer River watershed. The local declaration covers all streams, creeks, lakes and rivers feeding into the Red Deer River, ending at the Saskatchewan border.
The rest of the province has been declared a buffer zone.
Windsor questions how long the disease has actually been present in Alberta.
"Has it been there for 10 years, 30 years and we're just getting to it now?" Windsor queried.
If that's the case, he says the disease can be nearly anywhere considering how it can be transmitted.
Transmission from infected locations to other water bodies can be through equipment used for swimming, paddling, boating, water pumping, and fishing as well as through infected fish and fish parts.
The movement of fish, mud and water can potentially spread whirling disease.
"Say I wear my waders in the Red Deer River, fish for a day and go up to Grande Cache to the Kakwa for grayling. I wear the same waders and didn't necessarily disinfect or clean my waders," said Windsor, pointing to the ease of possible spread to different waterways. "Same goes for fishing in the Bow and next thing I'm fishing in Hillier's Dam."
With the emphasis on prevention awareness only started last year, Windsor is "tremendously concerned" about the spread to uninfected watersheds.
"I'm a fairly diligent, very respectful fisherman. What about the people who aren't?"
Additional detections of whirling disease from the ongoing sampling and testing do not mean the disease is spreading, confirms CFIA. Whirling disease may have been present for several years, it says.
Provincial officials say new declarations of whirling disease are reason for increasing awareness of the need to clean, drain and dry any equipment that comes into contact with water.
Impacts to wild trout and whitefish populations are significantly reduced when prevalence of the disease in the environment is low, according to a provincial press release. Maintaining low prevalence of the disease where possible reduces the threat to wild trout populations, it states.
The province recently announced $9.3 million to fund Alberta's three-point whirling disease action plan.
As part of that plan, the provincial government opened a whirling disease laboratory in Vegreville late last month that is dedicated to determining the extent of whirling disease. Additional staff have also been hired throughout the province as part of education and mitigation efforts.
The province began collecting samples to test for whirling disease in August 2016. Since then, more than 6,000 samples have been collected and tested from six of Alberta's watersheds, as well as provincial hatcheries and commercial fish farms.
"I'm a fairly diligent, very respectful fisherman. What about the people who aren't?"Bill WindsorDidsbury fisherman
