At the recent roundtable in St. Cloud , the MN DNR distributed a draft of proposed Tournament Permit rule changes. One of these is a rule change that would deny a permit for live-release on any waters where Largemouth Bass Virus (LMBV) has been detected."

This would immediately affect Pools 3 and 7. Pool 4 may likely contain fish that will also test positive. All permits would require catch and kill. There is concern with the spread of the disease via confinement in livewells and increased delayed mortality due to the stress associated with weigh-ins."

There's a possibility that LMBV will be found on Pool 4 this year.  This rule would take effect in 2007.

In my opinion, LMBV becomes a major contributor to post tournament mortality, when infected fish are subjected to substantial stress. When fish are caught, transported, handled, weighed, released or contained; this creates stress. Then this stress is increased by high air and water temperatures.  So, during periods of extremely warm conditions, we could see increased mortality. It is also been proven in lab tests that the disease can be transmitted by containment in livewells or holding tanks, nets, etc.

So, do we go to catch and kill? I think not. It is a little like killing everyone with a cold, because they are almost certain to spread the virus to others and some will develop pneumonia and perish.

Is it realistic for State DNR’s to consider what contributes to fish kills-YES. And while I’m surprised that this proposed rule was shared at the roundtable, I’m thinking that the MN DNR is willing to look further into this.

The problem is that we just don’t have data on LMBV and cooler lakes and rivers. The best study was done to simulate worst case in summer heat.  We don't have data on cool water events with LMBV so we can't say what would happen.  But most experts don't feel that just because a lake is LMBV-positive that all the fish caught and released following every tournament there will die.  From what they have seen, there has to be additional stressors (like temperature) to cause the high mortality seen in their studies. 

There have had loads of tournaments in Oklahoma since LMBV showed up in 2000 and very few kills (only 2) and those were not associated with tournaments.  Now maybe all the released fish are swimming off and dying later and not floating up, but I doubt it.  Even in the heat of summer they don't see rafts of dead bass on every LMBV-positive lake that is hosting tournaments.

So, I’m working hard to connect our DNR Fisheries staff with the study authors and hope to facilitate a better understanding of the science on this. But in my opinion, we will need to think about how we conduct tournaments during periods of very high water and air temperatures. Things like all-day weigh-in opportunity, reduced bag limits, reduced tournament hours, in-water weigh-in, being very conservative with the fish we release. Putting any fish that looks remotely stressed in a cooler. We can not continue to hold fish in plastic bags for unreasonable periods; that are vulnerable to the stress this creates.   Please let me know your comments.  

Vern Wagner, MNBF Conservation Director