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Isle Royale National Park Superintendent, Phyllis Green, announced emergency restrictions for the Lake Superior waters within Isle Royale National Park. “The spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) in the lower Great Lakes and the disease’s rapid jump to new species has forced me to implement an order restricting the discharge of untreated ballast waters within Park waters by any ballasted ship.” Green stated she feels accidental introduction of this virus into Park waters where the water temperatures are ideal for its spread, is potentially devastating to fish populations within the Park. In addition, during the fall spawning season, the threat of spreading the infection is greatly increased due to the congregation of large numbers of fish on spawning reefs.

“The Park has 12 phenotypes of lake trout around the Island and its coaster brook trout population is used as brood stock for reintroduction of that species across Lake Superior. In addition many of the new species this virus affects are popular sports fishing species within Isle Royale. The vector to transmit the disease upstream has to be broken, and it can be broken with, in our case, an easy application of relatively inexpensive chemicals,” said Green. The Park will be notifying industry and affected boaters of the regulation this week. Green is also encouraging the industry to sit down with researchers, relevant state agencies, and their technical engineers to design and implement emergency treatment as soon as possible.

Currently, vessels not regulated by the new MI DEQ regulation can comply with Isle Royale’s emergency restriction by conducting their ballast exchange outside park boundaries. A major shipping lane to ports in Thunder Bay, Canada is located within the boundaries of Isle Royale. Implementation of this restriction should prevent Isle Royale from becoming the first spot infected with VHS in Lake Superior and slow or retard the impacts of this virus on fish populations within the Park.

Isle Royale personnel will begin implementing ballast water treatment on the NPS owned and operated ship the Ranger III today. Green stated: “We’re treating our ship, which has 10 ballast tanks, in a manner accessible to any ship with ballast tanks. We’re dumping a little over one gallon of bleach into about 18,500 gallons of water to kill anything in its tanks through the tank vents. To help distribute the disinfectant, we will be pumping ballast between tanks. We will neutralize the effects of the chlorine with vitamin c and release only decontaminated neutralized water within Park boundaries. The Park will meet or exceed with discharge standards set forth in the Salt water vessel regulations. The Park worked with state and university researchers and the ship’s engineers to come up with a simple method to use existing systems to prevent viral transmission. Dr David Hand, a Professor at Michigan Technological University was invaluable in developing fast, inexpensive methods to treat the Ranger III ballast. In the future, the Park will install a metering pump which cost less than $3,000 on this $3 million dollar ship to apply a better temporary fix.

“The long-term treatment solution for the Ranger III may not be chlorine, but it will probably be one of the options currently in the State regulations for ocean going freighters. We expect to evaluate all the options this winter to determine which treatment to install on the Ranger III when it goes into dry- dock in the fall of 2008. In the meantime, we encourage any ballasted ship to figure out a way to apply these inexpensive chemicals to help stop the spread of devastating aquatic invasive species. ” Green continued, “Right now the State DEQ regulation is ill-equipped to move rapidly on highly injurious or problematic invasive species, which is why the Park is taking individual action to supplement the State regulation. The State currently asks more of fishermen, recreational boaters and all saltwater vessels than domestic ballasted ships. The interstate Great Lakes freighters (unregulated by the state) are critical to arrest the spread of VHS virus and other invasive species.”

Green is urging agencies with the statutory authority to work with industry to develop an emergency treatment or enact emergency regulations to prevent the spread of VHS in Lake Superior to do so now. She asks that the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force look at rapid response actions that could be initiated in days or weeks versus months to draw a line at the Sault Lock and break the vector for VHS into Lake Superior.

Most recreational boating in Lake Superior has ceased for the season. The Park will work to inform owners of ballasted boats of the restrictions and list options for chlorinating ballast tanks similar in size to the Ranger III through the winter in trade publications and via the Park web site. If boaters treat ballast water prior to entering the Lake Superior basin transmittal of this insidious disease may be broken at the Sault Locks.

These two common household items are the solution to 99.9 percent of the invasive problems in the great lakes. Having them available on your boat or ship and applying them correctly can make a difference. The Ranger III demonstration today proves that.

The recreational and commercial fisheries are a multi-million dollar industry in Lake Superior. Isle Royale is a significant part of the Lake Superior fishery. The spread of this virus to Isle Royale and hopefully to all of Lake Superior must be stopped.

The park will initiate formal rule making for permanent regulation prohibiting untreated ballast exchange with a Federal Register notice. Public comment will be collected during the rulemaking process. If you would like to be on a mailing list either send or email your name and address to Isle Royale National Park Ballast News; 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton MI 49931. Or email: ISRO Superintendent@nps.gov.

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