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The environment and the health of the carp played a key role in the die-off of thousands of carp in area lakes this summer, says a Ministry of Natural Resources biologist.
Species at risk biologist J.J. Beechie compared the role played by the two factors to issues such as smoking and diet in health concerns among humans.
“In people it would be things like smoking and diet that might make them more susceptible to disease,” he told The Examiner .
In the case of the carp, the disease was the bacteria columnaris and the environment and the fish’s health made the carp susceptible to an infection, he said.
In particular, low oxygen levels, high organic matter, general pollution and a late spring that could have delayed spawning were followed by quick warming right after spawning that made the situation ripe for columnaris to set in, Beechie said.
Any time there is a fish kill, biologists look for three pieces to the puzzle — the pathogen (in this case columnaris), the environment and the fish’s health, he said.
While columnaris turned up early in the investigations, ministry scientists asked for virus tests to be run, to ensure nothing beyond columnaris was at work.
“It’s good news it was columnaris,” Beechie said Monday.
Ministry personnel discovered the first dead carp in early June while doing a regular seasonal assessment of fish on Lake Scugog.
Area residents and municipalities have since buried thousands of tonnes of carp in landfills and their own properties.
While the dead fish are turning up in fewer numbers now — corpses were recovered from Lake Scugog, the Scugog River, Sturgeon Lake, Cameron Lake, Pigeon Lake, Buckhorn Lake, Chemong Lake, Balsam Lake, Sandy Lake and Mitchell Lake — the incident resembled other die-offs in the Ottawa River last summer, Wisconsin, New York, the St. Lawrence River and Ohio.
Beechie said the common thread between them is that columnaris is a naturally occurring disease.
“It’s going to happen. Especially in the shallow Kawartha Lakes, it will continue to happen,” Beechie said. “The Kawartha Lakes have been here since the glaciers and columnaris has been here ever since as well.”
“It may be more on people’s radar than it was in the past and to say we’ve never had one this big affecting carp is accurate.”
Two more information sessions held by the ministry and the City of Kawartha Lakes on the carp die-off will be held tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Coboconk Community Centre and at 7 p.m. at the Bobcaygeon Service Centre.
What can you do?
Things people can to do improve water quality on local lakes include:
n Creating or allowing a natural shoreline, with a buffer zone between the water and the developed area. This will discourage geese from coming on land where they can’t easily spot a predator and prevent run-off of fecal material that can increase E. coli in lakes.
n Not fertilizing lawns and installing proper septic tanks will help reduce phosphates and nitrates which can cause an increase in weeds.
— Ministry of Natural Resources biologist J.J. Beechie
jpengelly@peterboroughexaminer.com