Project Information

Title: SEA: Disease Impacts on PWS Herring Populations 94320-S

Project Year and Number: 1994: 94320-S

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 1995: 95320-S

Principal Investigator (PI): Gary Marty (BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands)

Managing Agency: ADFG

Assisting Personnel: Corrine Davis, Thomas Farver, Ellen Freiberg, David Hinton, Ted Meyers, John Wilcock

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring

Abstract: The Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) program is a multi-disciplinary effort to acquire an ecosystem level understanding of the marine and freshwater processes that interact to constrain levels of fish, marine bird, and marine mammal production in Prince William Sound (PWS). Pacific herring in PWS provide important forage for many mammals, birds, and fish, and the herring harvest contributes substantially to local economies. PWS adult herring population appeared to crash in 1993. Herring are long lived fish (to 15 years), and in the absence of catastrophic events, dramatic population declines should not be expected. During the 1993 herring spawning season, skin lesions were seen on one-sixth to almost one half of the herring in almost every school. Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia virus (VHSV) was isolated from these herring but no determination was made whether VHSV was the cause of the crash. VHSV has the potential to infect many species of bony fishes, but its ability to produce disease varies from species to species and strain of virus. This component of the SEA program will examine the general condition and spawning condition of PWS herring and compare these measurements of overall health to the incidence of VHSV. Herring will be randomly selected, visually screened and scored for lesions, measured, and subjected to a complete necropsy. Analysis of covariance will be used to test for the significance of associations between the various measurements.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Annual Report FY94: View (5,960 KB)
Final Report: Not available. For current status, please contact us.

Publications from this Project: None Available

Datasets:
EVOSTC Data Archive: Lesion scores, age, weight, length, 17 plasma chemistries, VHSV titles, site of capture, time of capture, gear type. Total of 233 fish. Spreadsheet (SuperCalc) Availability: On a case by case basis.