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'Fish handler's disease' on rise in Md.
By Gretchen Parker
Associated Press ? April 27, 2004
CLAIBORNE, Md. ? Doctors believe rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay are carrying Mycobacterium marinum, a bacterium that watermen call "fish handler's disease."
One stricken fisherman saw his hand swell to the size of a pork chop. The lump soon spread to his wrist, and his elbow began to stiffen.
With the start of rockfish season April 17 came little publicity about the disease, which first was documented by Maryland state scientists in 1998. They now estimate it has spread to 50 percent of rockfish in some areas of the bay. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, however, estimates 76 percent of rockfish baywide are infected.
"I think there is a clear, human health concern that hundreds of people will be out fishing for rockfish at the start of the season, and very few are aware there is a prevalent disease with these fish," said Howard R. Ernst, a Naval Academy professor and author of "Chesapeake Bay Blues," a book published last year that is critical of the state's regulation of bay pollution.
This week, Desmond Kahn, an environmental scientist for Delaware's fisheries division, will present data to a conference of biologists showing the death rate of rockfish due to natural causes in the bay is three times what it was in 1997. Alternative data show a death rate that is slightly lower, he said.
One reason for the rise could be the spread of the mycobacterium, Kahn said, which is fatal to fish but not harmful to humans if eaten.
"That's not confirmed. But the data is convincing to me that survival (of rockfish) has declined," Kahn said.
Maryland scientists downplay the prevalence of the bacteria in the official state fish, which are touted as one of the Chesapeake Bay's few success stories. The state instituted a rockfish ban in 1985 after a collapse in the bay population. By the time the moratorium was lifted in 1990, the population had recovered.
Now, the start of rockfish season brings recreational fishermen to the boat ramps in swarms.
Last year brought the bay's highest rockfish catch since 1996, said Martin Gary, a DNR fisheries ecologist. There are an estimated 60 million of the popular fish from Nova Scotia to northern Florida.
Mycobacterium is a threat, Gary said, but it "isn't showing up in any way, shape or form that shows we're losing fish."
Gary says fish handler's disease suffers an exaggerated reputation because several infections that aren't mycobacteriosis get lumped together as fish handler's disease. The state doesn't keep records of how many people catch it, but surgeons at the Curtis National Hand Center in Baltimore say they see two to three new cases every month.
"There does seem to be a disproportionate number of people who live on the Chesapeake Bay who contract it," said James Higgins, a surgeon at the center, which is part of The Union Memorial Hospital. "This does seem to be a hotspot for it."
Gary points out that just one DNR rockfish researcher has ever contracted the disease. DNR's 10 striped bass researchers tag the fish seven months a year and handle more than 10,000 of them. They wear chain-mail gloves, which don't protect from spiny barbs on the fish.
The bacteria are also carried by crabs, oysters and can even be transmitted if a fisherman gets scratched or stabbed by a barnacle lying in infected water. By dipping their hands in a bucket of fresh water mixed with antibacterial dish soap, fishermen can ward off some infection, Gary said.
State officials have long been reluctant to publicize fish handler's disease, said James Price, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Ecological Foundation. Price said he fears that if the disease isn't addressed, the rockfish resurgence will be short-lived.
He first contacted DNR in 1996 to report that fishermen were noticing more skinny rockfish, some of which were covered with red sores and lesions.
DNR scientists have since found that the red rashes seen on rockfish are caused by a different infection still being studied.
"There's quite a bit of politics here," said Victor Crecco, supervisor of research in Connecticut's Marine Fisheries Division. "Politically, they feel very uncomfortable about this," he said of Maryland natural resources officials.
Crecco devised the formula that found the increase in Chesapeake Bay rockfish deaths.
But a minority of scientists and bay advocates are becoming more vocal about the disease, which becomes more prevalent in the summer and fall, when the food supply for rockfish becomes more scarce and heat degrades the bay's water quality. Those conditions stress rockfish, making them more susceptible to the disease.
By Gretchen Parker
Associated Press ? April 27, 2004
CLAIBORNE, Md. ? Doctors believe rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay are carrying Mycobacterium marinum, a bacterium that watermen call "fish handler's disease."
One stricken fisherman saw his hand swell to the size of a pork chop. The lump soon spread to his wrist, and his elbow began to stiffen.
With the start of rockfish season April 17 came little publicity about the disease, which first was documented by Maryland state scientists in 1998. They now estimate it has spread to 50 percent of rockfish in some areas of the bay. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, however, estimates 76 percent of rockfish baywide are infected.
"I think there is a clear, human health concern that hundreds of people will be out fishing for rockfish at the start of the season, and very few are aware there is a prevalent disease with these fish," said Howard R. Ernst, a Naval Academy professor and author of "Chesapeake Bay Blues," a book published last year that is critical of the state's regulation of bay pollution.
This week, Desmond Kahn, an environmental scientist for Delaware's fisheries division, will present data to a conference of biologists showing the death rate of rockfish due to natural causes in the bay is three times what it was in 1997. Alternative data show a death rate that is slightly lower, he said.
One reason for the rise could be the spread of the mycobacterium, Kahn said, which is fatal to fish but not harmful to humans if eaten.
"That's not confirmed. But the data is convincing to me that survival (of rockfish) has declined," Kahn said.
Maryland scientists downplay the prevalence of the bacteria in the official state fish, which are touted as one of the Chesapeake Bay's few success stories. The state instituted a rockfish ban in 1985 after a collapse in the bay population. By the time the moratorium was lifted in 1990, the population had recovered.
Now, the start of rockfish season brings recreational fishermen to the boat ramps in swarms.
Last year brought the bay's highest rockfish catch since 1996, said Martin Gary, a DNR fisheries ecologist. There are an estimated 60 million of the popular fish from Nova Scotia to northern Florida.
Mycobacterium is a threat, Gary said, but it "isn't showing up in any way, shape or form that shows we're losing fish."
Gary says fish handler's disease suffers an exaggerated reputation because several infections that aren't mycobacteriosis get lumped together as fish handler's disease. The state doesn't keep records of how many people catch it, but surgeons at the Curtis National Hand Center in Baltimore say they see two to three new cases every month.
"There does seem to be a disproportionate number of people who live on the Chesapeake Bay who contract it," said James Higgins, a surgeon at the center, which is part of The Union Memorial Hospital. "This does seem to be a hotspot for it."
Gary points out that just one DNR rockfish researcher has ever contracted the disease. DNR's 10 striped bass researchers tag the fish seven months a year and handle more than 10,000 of them. They wear chain-mail gloves, which don't protect from spiny barbs on the fish.
The bacteria are also carried by crabs, oysters and can even be transmitted if a fisherman gets scratched or stabbed by a barnacle lying in infected water. By dipping their hands in a bucket of fresh water mixed with antibacterial dish soap, fishermen can ward off some infection, Gary said.
State officials have long been reluctant to publicize fish handler's disease, said James Price, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Ecological Foundation. Price said he fears that if the disease isn't addressed, the rockfish resurgence will be short-lived.
He first contacted DNR in 1996 to report that fishermen were noticing more skinny rockfish, some of which were covered with red sores and lesions.
DNR scientists have since found that the red rashes seen on rockfish are caused by a different infection still being studied.
"There's quite a bit of politics here," said Victor Crecco, supervisor of research in Connecticut's Marine Fisheries Division. "Politically, they feel very uncomfortable about this," he said of Maryland natural resources officials.
Crecco devised the formula that found the increase in Chesapeake Bay rockfish deaths.
But a minority of scientists and bay advocates are becoming more vocal about the disease, which becomes more prevalent in the summer and fall, when the food supply for rockfish becomes more scarce and heat degrades the bay's water quality. Those conditions stress rockfish, making them more susceptible to the disease.
