Tony Slovak, co-owner of the Osoyoos RV and Waterslides park, photographed these dead fish on the beach off of Lakeshore Drive last month. Photo submitted - Click on picture for large image
OSOYOOS TIMES-July 7, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
Biologists from the B.C. Environment Ministry and the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife said that a bacteria outbreak that has killed hundreds of fish in Osoyoos Lake in the past several weeks poses no threat to humans.
Dead fish began washing up at several of the lake’s beaches in May.
John Kerwin, a conservation biologist in Washington state, said the department starting looking into reports about dead fish in the lake at the end of May and determined that columnaris bacteria is behind the outbreak which is mainly affecting yellow perch.
It’s a naturally occurring bacteria that is associated with stress, he said, adding that the warming of the water is likely what is causing stress levels in the fish to rise.
Although other fish can become infected, the bacteria cannot be transmitted to humans and it can’t spread to other species, Kerwin said.
Paul Askey, a fish stock assessment biologist with the B.C. Environment Ministry, said calls from the public about dead fish on the lake’s beaches began to come in on May 28.
He also said people are not at risk and the bacteria has killed only a few hundred yellow perch in the lake out of a population of 10s or 100s of thousands.
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