"Fish-Handler's Disease" Increasing In Maryland

[hatrack]

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."

EDIT

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/nation/8530715.htm