Fishing for answers
Logan hatchery helps spawn disease-resistant trout
When it comes to whirling disease, however, the "Ho-Ha," for lack of a better name right now, is the super fish.
It is, said Chris Wilson, director of the Fisheries Experiment Station in Logan, "10 times more resistant to whirling disease than our local rainbow."
Which may mean the Ho-Ha is an answer, albeit not a solution, to Utah's whirling disease problem. Early tests are promising. More tests are necessary.
Work with the Ho-Ha is but one of the ongoing programs at the Logan facility run by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Other responsibilities range from the survival of endangered fish to monitoring Utah's state hatchery system and waters to finding ways to keep healthy fish healthier.
It is a part of the wildlife division that works more in modest anonymity than boastful notoriety.
Most fishermen know little if anything about the Logan station. What they do take for granted is the tug on the other end of the line is a healthy, edible fish.
In the 1960s, Ron Goede, now retired overseer of the station, took charge and expanded responsibilities to deal with new concepts and new problems within the Utah fishing system.
During his career, Goede would become recognized as one of the leading experts in the area of fish health, and the center would be called in an independent study one of the finest in the country.
When Goede took over, dead fish were being taken from state hatcheries in wheelbarrows because of diseases and, it would later be discovered, poor nutrition.
Over the years, new methods of disease control have been introduced, new fish have been raised as well as improvements in fish nutrition, all because of work at the station.
For example, explained Eric Wagner, director of research, "Nutrition is no longer a problem." There are now foods on the market that supply growing fish with all their daily nutritional requirements.
And, as Wilson pointed out, some of the diseases have been contained, "but those that remain can be a huge problem (for Utah) ... and we're working on those."
Whirling disease is at the top of the list.
Responsibility for monitoring state hatcheries and state waters for whirling disease fall under the responsibilities of Wade Cavender, fish health specialist. This involves duties such as the constant testing and surveying of critical tributaries feeding infected waters and recording any of the infected waters to show where parasites are and allow regional managers to manage accordingly.
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