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Scientists divided on virus threat to Cultus Lake fish
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Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Researchers say a fish virus found in Cultus Lake cutthroat trout could be impacting the endangered Cultus sockeye. Fish population expert Rick Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University, said the piscine reovirus (PRV) was found in 13 of 15 samples of the Cultus Lake trout. “If PRV has been found in a Cultus Lake sport fish, it could be contributing to the failure of the lake’s sockeye population to return in abundance,” says Routledge. The virus could be linked to other diseases found on fish farms, he said, such as the heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI), which hit Norwegian salmon farms and can kill up to 20 per cent of infected fish. Routledge said this first detection of PRV in a B.C. freshwater sport fish indicates the virus could already be “prevalent” to some extent. However, a fish pathologist with the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture said the link to the fish heart disease could not be established with just the detection of this virus by itself. “I’m not surprised that the virus sequence is present because we find it in 60 to 75 per cent of farmed salmon,” said Gary Marty from the Animal Health Centre in Abbotsford. “In Norway, they call PRV ‘ubiquitous’ because every time they sample fish, they find it.” The reovirus could have been present for “generations” in B.C. waters, he said. The ‘o’ in reovirus stands for ‘orphan’ which means it’s a virus without a disease, Dr. Marty added. Some Canadian scientists and non-government organizations are concerned that salmon farms pose a serious risk to wild Pacific salmon, and have specifically raised concerns about the spread of PRV from farms to wild stocks. “The discover y of PRV in Cultus Lake’s cutthroat trout also begs the question is it in other related species in the lake, such as rainbow trout, kokanee and Dolly Varden?” said Routledge in the release. “This latest discovery could also mean that salmon and trout in any lake exposed to spawning salmon returning from the North Pacific must be considered at risk of infection.” Continued: VIRUS/ p10
Black powder enthusiasts chat around candles and a campfire during the Fraser Valley Frontiersmen Black Powder Club’s 40th annual Buffalo Shoot at the Chilliwack Fish and Game Club Saturday night. Watch for more coverage on the buffalo shoot later this week, both online and in print. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
New law gets tough on metal theft Robert Freeman The Progress A province-wide metal theft law went into effect Monday bringing smiles to Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz and to other municipal mayors that have city bylaws aimed at halting such theft. “We are really happy the province has enacted this legislation,” Gaetz said. “We’ve been asking for this for a long time.” She said there are 10 B.C. municipalities that have bylaws to deter thieves from selling stolen metal like copper wiring to scrap metal dealers.
But the problem was that thieves could take materials stolen in one community to dealers in other communities without similar bylaws that require disclosure of the sale to police, she said. The province-wide law and regulations will attempt to put an end to that. “If you have scrap metal to sell you will need to produce ID - a valid driver’s licence or BC Identity Card - and that must be recorded by the person buying the scrap metal,” said Chilliwack MLA John Les. The record of the sale must also be made available to the
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RCMP, he said. “That’s really at the heart of this,” he said. “Up to now there was the ability to sell with no questions asked, no requirement for disclosure, no requirement by the dealer to make the information available to police.” The provincial government hasn’t been eager to place more regulations on business, he said, “but the problems we’ve encountered with metal theft requires a government response.” For instance, thieves are stealing live telephone wires that connect the elderly to medical monitoring systems
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and to 9-1-1 emergency dispatch, he said. Manhole covers have also been stolen and sold in “blatantly irregular transactions,” Les said, that put innocent people at risk. “Clearly somebody is accepting these things with no questions asked,” he said. Les agreed there may be legal challenges to the law for privacy reasons, but “we think this (law) is a reasonable response to a problem we have in society today,” he said. “We think we’re on pretty solid (legal) territory here,” he Continued: METAL/ p4
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