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Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Seen on another board that they are going to be taking walleyes eggs from fish on the Lake Michigan side. E-mailed my DNR biologist bud about this and asked about the VHS situation that was suposed to keep this from happening for a while and heres his answer.
The decision was made to go ahead and collect walleye spawn this year except on the Tittabawassee River. This is because Lake Michigan (Muskegon R. and Little Bay de Noc egg sources) is still designated just as a "surveillance area for VHS" while all of Lake Huron is confirmed with VHS. They will be applying some egg disinfection procedures to the eggs collected and they think between those procedures and the precaution of limiting the take to L. Michigan waters that the remaining risk is minimal. My understanding is that because L. Michigan strain eggs are being collected, that no walleye stocking in Lake Huron will occur (due to genetic considerations) but since we have suspended walleye stocking on Saginaw Bay any ways, there are not many Lake Huron stocking sites left any how. I think some of the L. Michigan fry will be reared in ponds in the Lake Huron watershed and some of those fingerlings will be used for inland planting. So the plan for 2008, as I understand it, is a sort of work-around intended to keep things moving as best as possible. |
