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Full Version: Whirling Disease ?
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My son took his boat out yesterday day to Gem Lake which is part of the snake river here in Idaho Falls. As he was taking his boat out of the lake and back onto his trailer, he noticed a fish swimming around and a around in a circle near the boat dock. There was a fellow who was fishing at the dock who was giving my son a hand that also saw the fish. They tried to net the fish but had no luck. My son told me that it looked like the fish had blood shot eyes.....I didn't think that we had that disease problem here in Idaho...anyone know otherwise??
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I've seen that same thing both at Twin Bridges near Heise and right next to Lorenzo bridge. I wasn't too sure about it myself. Good sized fish too. It was pretty Sad to see.
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I have seen many fish with whirling disease, but it is hard to say if this was a whirling disease case. It may have just been a fish that someone squeezed too hard when it was released.

Windriver
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I agree with Windriver. there are a few things that can cause a fish to act funny, especially when there are interactions with people, so it's hard to say. But there definately is whirling disease here.
In an effort to slow the spread of not only whirling disease, but other aquatic nuisance species, they are asking everybody to be very carefull about cleaning our boats off after using them before using them in different bodies of water, and making sure they are free of hitch hikers so to speek. the same thing goes for waders and wading boots.
Here is an interesting website that shows the distribution of whirling disease in the US: [url "http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu/about/map2.htm"]http://whirlingdisease.montana.edu/about/map2.htm[/url]
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