B.C. officials have concluded their whirling disease testing in Kootenay Lake for 2024, with no additional positive cases found.
“We have finished sampling all of the fish from 2024. We can’t test over the winter, so we won’t get any results,” said Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill.
“We will resume testing again in the spring when the necessary biological conditions are in place. Of all the fish we tested, we did not find any more positive samples.”
This comes after the B.C. government found three trout infected with the parasite that causes whirling disease in Kootenay Lake.
B.C. government officials say whirling disease is caused by a microscopic parasite that attaches itself to fish and aquatic worms.
The parasite damages its host’s brain stem and spinal cord, causing it to swim in an erratic whirling pattern.
Francois Masse, Superintendent for Yoho and Kootenay National Parks says the illness cannot be spread to humans, but it is particularly deadly to juvenile fish.
“Whirling disease mortality rates can reach 90 per cent in young fish,” explained Masse.
“There is no treatment for whirling disease and once established, it is very difficult to eradicate.”
Neill says the public can play a role in preventing the further spread of whirling disease.
“Clean, drain dry and pull the plug. We have to decontaminate every vessel we put into the water before we move it into another body of water,” said Neill.
“We have to do this consistently. That includes kayaks, paddle boards, fishing boats, jet skis, and every other kind of watercraft.”
The B.C. government recently introduced a new law that made it illegal to travel with a watercraft with its drain plug in.
Neill says prevention is key when battling invasive species.
“We have to make sure we don’t contaminate two bodies of water at once. That’s our best defence – making sure everybody does that,” said Neill.
In March, the federal government banned fishing and boating in Kootenay and Yoho National Parks. Neill says the B.C. government is unlikely to follow suit for now.
“At this point, we are not planning any closures. I think because they were federal parks, it was a bit easier for the government to close those areas in a really proactive way, but we’re not planning on going that at this point,” said Neill.
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