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Posted by Warren Turner
on January 29, 2008, 10:28 pm
66.169.25.148
For your information, on Saturday I discovered the Copepod infested in striped bass in Lake Murray. I checked about 30-stripers at the Striper Kings tournament weigh-in and approximately 70% had them.
When I spoke to the SCDNR biologists, this was the first report to them of the copepod being in Murray. Last year the SCDNR had discovered some in fish below the Lake Murray dam on the Santee system but there were not many found. Unfortunately, some of the fish I found Saturday were loaded with them.
The copepod does not kill the fish nor make their meat dangerous for human consumption. However, the copepod does damage the gils of the fish making it more difficult for them to process oxygen. Then when the summer squeeze comes they are already weak and the largest ones die quickly. Several lakes including Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia have had their big striper fishery destroyed when the copepod infestation explodes.
Just thought you needed to know what I found,
Warren
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