White Cap -- I guess it was bad enough I got the credits wrong once, let alone twice...but I did. So, my thanks go rightly to Grey Ghost (Gus) for the pics of the sick laker and the follow up on my post on whirling disease.
It would be a good idea to get clarification from John Viar as to how he'd like us to deal with these diseased fish. To minimize the spread of the parasite causing the disease it would definitely be best to remove all diseased fish regardless of size. (Also we may need to learn decontamination procedures in the event we look to release fish after we catch a sick one -- need to read up on this). As others noted, killing small diseased fish puts us up against "the letter" of the law. However, removing all infected fish of any size makes the best sense in terms of fishery management. If we could document this better going forward perhaps John Viar and others can provide a "special directive" recommending that we kill / remove all fish with obvious signs of the whirling disease regardless of size.
Also, if indeed lakers are supposedly resistant to whirling disease, these observations are troubling in that it may indicate the parasite has adapted if not evolved to attack lakers in Winni. Another reason to remove any diseased / deformed fish and get them to a fisheries biologist for examination.
