Johnson Lake to be culled

[MrDave]

Parks Canada has job postings listed for this season. Included are positions for gill netting and electroshocking Johnson Lake to eliminate the host of Whirling Disease, aka salmonids. It has been "identified as a hotspot for the disease based on the prevalence of the parasite in tested fish."
"Parks Canada will attempt to eradicate the disease from Johnson Lake by eliminating the fish host."

Another problem in our watersheds, that stocking has caused. How will it work, don't know but there goes another bunch of cash getting spent cleaning up after the fact.

[Mr Flyguy]

Not necessarily caused by stocking, could be a contaminated boat or tackle from another water body.

[CNP]

Without stocking, fishing would be extremely limited in Banff/Jasper. If Johnson Lake whirling disease came from stocked fish, it has been there since 1988 or earlier.

Stocking in Banff National Park stopped in 1988

Most of the lakes in the mountain national parks were fishless before 1900. In a survey of 1464 lakes in Jasper, Banff, Yoho, Waterton, Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, it was found that over 95% of the lakes did not contain fish until they were stocked in the 20th century. The few that did support natural fish populations contained simple communities of one to four fish species, depending on the size, altitude and exposure of the lake.

https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...ement-stocking

https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...c-johnson-lake

[flyrodfisher]

The culling program actually began in the fall of 2017.

https://www.rmoutlook.com/article/pa...plans-20180412

As is typical of any PC project...they are never on time.

[Drewski Canuck]

No stocking in Banff or Jasper for a couple of decades now.

Not the source of whirling disease in Banff or Jasper.

Drewski