Ich disease killed 250,000 trout at Nampa hatchery recently

About 250,000 rainbow trout have been killed in an abrupt disease outbreak at Nampa fish hatchery. This is a total loss of almost 8 percent of Idaho’s annual output of catchable-sized trout.

The outbreak of this disease occurred in January, but became public this week because the state agency is trying to manage remaining stocks of 6 to 8 inch fish at its five other hatcheries to make certain lakes and streams still get enough fish to satisfy anglers. Hopefully their efforts will turn positive and the overall negative effect of the outbreak will be nullified.

Apart from this, a sudden thunderstorm last year washed debris-laden runoff into Idaho’s Sawtooth hatchery near Stanley. This has drastically weakened chinook salmon and making them more susceptible to the parasite that caused this recent outbreak.