Outdoor Notes / Earl Gustkey : Fatal Blue Tongue Virus Strikes Deer Herds

Deer herds in four Northern California counties have been stricken with blue tongue, a fatal viral disease. Biologists from the state Department of Fish and Game are asking hunters to report discoveries of any dead or dying deer, so they can be examined.

The disease, not transmissible to humans, has killed deer in isolated areas of Mendocino, Trinity, Siskiyou and Tehama counties. The department estimates total losses “at least in the hundreds and perhaps in the low thousands.”

Dave Jessup, DFG wildlife pathologist, said the outbreak has resulted in more deer deaths than in any of the 10 years he’s been with the DFG.

The disease is spread between animals by a gnat and is often carried by cattle. Blue tongue frequently results in a secondary infection in the hoofs of deer.

The DFG said that 20 deer carcasses--all blue tongue victims--have been found near Covelo in Mendocino County alone. Biologists point out deer carcasses tend to disappear rapidly in the wild to scavengers and that total losses could be considerably higher than evidence shows.

Blue tongue in deer isn’t new in California. Herds have been periodically infected with it since the 1950s.

Tag returns are still coming in, but California’s northeastern pronghorn antelope hunts resulted in at least an 83% success rate for rifle hunters and a 22% showing by bowmen.

A total of 16,133 hunters who drew antelope tags participated in the hunts Aug. 16-Sept. 8 in Modoc, Lassen, Shasta, Plumas and Siskiyou counties.

Upland game bird hunting in Southern California, on the upswing in recent years, is expected to be even better when the season opens in Southern and Central California on Oct. 18.

Last year’s statewide quail take was pegged at 1,110,505 birds, up 10.6% over the 1984 survey result, and the chukar harvest was even higher, up 20% over 1984. Biologists and game wardens in Southland desert areas report that rains have caused the desert to bloom, providing an abundance of ground bird populations.

One area particularly abundant in quail is the Colorado Desert area along the Lower Colorado River, south of Blythe. Said Jack Page of the nearby Palo Verde Rod and Gun club: “We have a lot of water on the desert, and we’ve got an awful lot of quail. We expect one of our better quail seasons.”

About 2,000 4-month-old white sea bass were released into San Diego’s Mission Bay Thursday, the culmination of a 4-year-old project seeking ways to augment Southern California’s declining white sea bass fishery.

White sea bass were spawned in a laboratory for the first time in 1984, at the National Marine Fisheries Service facility in La Jolla. The project will continue, as scientists gather life-history information on the laboratory-raised fish, and to determine if the costs of augmenting natural populations with hatchery-raised fish is economically viable.

A DFG-National Marine Fisheries Service team recently tracked a striped marlin implanted with a sonic tag for 24 hours and 40 miles from near Catalina toward Mexican waters. Team member Dennis Bedford said the marlin did not stop for more than 10 minutes at a time and moved slower during the night than during the day. The marlin dropped below 60 feet only three times, for about five minute each time.

“Through the entire trip, we were able to view the fish only one time, even though it stayed just below the surface for nearly the whole trip,” Bedford said.

Briefly A state ban on commercial gill and trammel nets in ocean waters near San Francisco Bay was extended recently until Dec. 31 to protect sea birds from being snared. . . . The Fish and Game Commission recently tightened winter-run king salmon fishing regulations on the Upper Sacramento River, where salmon stocks have dropped 98% since 1969. . . . Phoenix lawyer Ed Lewis has been named executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, replacing Bob Anderson, who was fired by the coalition’s board of directors.