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What's Killing the Carp?
The carp at Bridgewater Marina have it easy- plenty of free meals and lots of attention. And now these lucky fish are somehow avoiding a mysterious virus that's killing other carp in the lake.
Paul Svorec, lives at the lake. He said, "There is a lot of dead carp, floating in our bay and myself and a bunch of neighbors have been picking a lot of dead bodies out of the lake, probably 8 to 10 to 12 a week."
According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries it was happening all over the lake. Fisheries Manager with the DGIF, Bud LaRouche, said, "It doesn't smell good to begin with and it is a little disconcerting to have friends, relatives and visitors come to the lake and seeing that--thing well.. what in the world is going on here?"
The DGIF ruled out water quality issues, since only carp were affected. Now they think one of two viruses are the culprit Spring Viremia or Koi Herpes. Specimens have been sent to a lab in Pennsylvania to know for sure.
"They are going to head and analyze those for particular viruses and what ends up in the kidneys," LaRouche said.
Which may explain why the Bridgewater carp haven't been affected. The larger, older fish have a better immunity. The DGIF says the virus will just have to ride itself out and already there's signs it's doing that.
"Most of those calls have dropped off so we think it's probably--the fish that are going to die, have probably already died," LaRouche said.
For folks on the lake that's good news. "Still you got to think about it, you can smell the dead fish in the air," Svorec said.
Biologists say humans cannot pick up this virus so we are safe. DGIF says this virus may have been especially deadly because this is also spawning season--which can stress fish and lower their immunity.
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