Deadly Waters
by Mark LaRoi

We’ve had invaders… Asian Carp, the Zebra Mussel, New Zealand Mud Snail and the Round Goby have impacted our fisheries greatly. Fish populations have fluctuated wildly because of changes in water quality, predation upon eggs and free swimming fish, being out-competed for food and the Asian Big-Headed Carp has even had a direct, physical impact on boaters due to their propensity for jumping into the air when startled by the sound of a boat motor. Broken noses and black eyes to fishermen have been reported. What else can you expect when a fish weighing up to one hundred pounds jumps into the air in the path of a moving watercraft?

One of our greatest dangers however, is much smaller than that giant, flying minnow. In fact, one of its most dangerous features is that you probably won’t know that it’s there until it strikes, and when this invader strikes on its microscopic level, it kills.

It’s target isn’t Rainbow Trout, or Walleye eggs, or even algae. It’s meal is the very flesh on your bones, and if you don’t act immediately upon discovering it having an effect on you, the odds are great that you'll be dead within days. Unfortunately, it’s a very widespread invader, and it must be considered a constant companion.

It’s a form of Streptococcus bacteria and it IS in the water you fish.

It causes a condition known medically as “necrotizing fasciitis”, but you’ll recognize it more quickly by the name bestowed upon it by those who’ve witnessed what it does to its victims. They call it “Flesh Eating Bacteria”… because it will devour you. The various forms of Streptococcus are part of the natural microbiology of animals and humans. It is a form of Streptococcus that gives its name to the condition “Strep Throat”, Scarlet Fever”, and forms of pneumonia. Like so many other substances, strep-type bacteria live unnoticed until some barrier is breached in the human body, or the immune system is compromised, and then they do their work. The particular species of bacteria which cause fasciitis is Streptococcus pyogenes. "Acute Streptococcus pyogenes infections may take the form of pharyngitis, scarlet fever (rash), impetigo, cellulitis, or erysipelas. Invasive infections can result in necrotizing fasciitis, myositis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Patients may also develop immune-mediated sequelae such as acute rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis." Recent examples have made headlines; this man fell into a harbor polluted by raw sewage after heavy rains, and apparently cut himself while climbing out:

"'A 34-year-old mortgage loan officer is near death with a flesh-eating disease after falling into the polluted waters of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor last week, according to his friends. Friends of Oliver Johnson said his doctors at the Queen's Medical Center diagnosed him with necrotizing fasciitis, a Group A streptococcal infection that 'destroys muscles, fat and skin tissue,' according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease forced the amputation of his left leg above the knee Monday, his friends said. His body also went into Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome, which causes blood pressure to drop rapidly and all major organs to fail, they said.'"

This man thought he had merely come down with the flu:

Last Tuesday, Ed Kopfman thought he'd come down with the flu. On Friday, he went to the doctor. By Sunday, the 47-year-old Kirkland father of two was taken to Harborview Medical Center and died that same day. For those who knew Kopfman, the cause of death was even more shocking: necrotizing fasciitis, a rare condition also known as "flesh-eating bacteria." "It's so unreal," his wife, Peggy Kopfman, said Wednesday. "We're all still in so much shock." The bacterial infection took the lives of five King County residents from January to March 15 this year, and eight more in 2005, according to Public Health — Seattle & King County, citing data from the county Medical Examiner's Office.

The fact is, there are a number of bad infections that can come from exposing a cut or abrasion to the waters we love so much. This is just one of the worst. This article isn’t meant to scare you out of the water, but to encourage you to be extra careful.

Something that each of us should keep handy is a small first aid kit. I keep a decent kit in the glove compartment of my car and a smaller version in both of my vests. Have the basics such as antibiotic ointment, antiseptic wipes, bandages, sterile needles and tweezers for removing splinters, stingers, thorns and other “ouches”; aspirin or other pain-killer, a small bottle of saline solution (for flushing dirty wounds and eyes) and, frankly, whatever else you can think of. Obviously you can’t carry all that in your vest or chest pack, but having it in the car is a major plus. It should be part of every vehicle emergency kit and just like your car jack and spare tire, you hope you never need them but are very glad to have them if the need arises.

In my vest I carry the bare necessities like stick-on bandages, antiseptic ointment (it’s great that this stuff forms a barrier against further germ entrance into the wound), headache pills and tweezers.

If you sustain a cut while fishing, clean it immediately. Don’t be a hero. If you sustain a cut that will be under the water, or was sustained while underwater, stop fishing and clean it out immediately. If, for example, you are wet wading (wading in a pair of shorts and sneakers instead of waders) and you should suffer a cut on your lower leg, STOP wading for the day! It isn’t worth the risk of infection by bacteria or any of the bugs that are naturally in the water. You don’t need some parasite entering your leg and causing you untold problems for the future.

Now I’m sure that some of you will take this as being overly cautious. I have to ask - is it really worth the risk? We’ve all done the he-man thing and kept fishing as blood ran down our hand or leg, and eaten our sandwiches with a hand covered in fish slime, but it only takes one infection to make us change our ways and that, only if we are given the chance to make that change.

There are a lot of “urban fishermen” these days. These men and women are fishing in the shadows of skyscrapers, and unfortunately that means they’re probably in water that gets regular contamination by sewage runoff. In an area know for sewage outlets, don’t fish during or after a prolonged, heavy rain. You might not smell the sewage, but it’s there. It gets on your waders, your hands, your legs, the fish, your equipment…and there’s no way of knowing how long it’ll live there. Picture your hand covered front and back by someone’s bathroom leftovers and then getting jabbed with a hook.

My friend, you’ve just become a lab experiment.

Wild waters harbor their share of bacteria and parasites as well, so don’t assume because you’re up in the mountains that you won’t get caught unawares. Infection can happen anywhere.

Every major urban fishing center has what we in Pittsburgh have come to call “Allegheny Whitefish.” Nobody wants to talk about that, and it isn’t spread over the entire watershed or even the entire river for that matter, but there are entry points on every major river, in every industrialized city in the world, where stuff that you don’t want to be standing in gets mixed with the water where our favorite quarry live.

What is an “Allegheny Whitefish”? It’s a used condom, flushed from someone’s home and part of the sewage that overflows in so many places.

It is possible our biggest weapon against high bacterial levels in our waters is to maintain a vigilant stand against illegal sewage overflows and fighting to upgrade legal ones where everybody knows…THAT shouldn’t be legal! Work with your local water departments to find out what it takes to improve the runoff system. Make sure you aren’t adding to the problem yourself. For those pristine mountain streams and lakes, just remember that dirty waders, boots, tubes and boats carry a coating from one place to the next, and birds are yet another source of spreading contaminants.

I thought about going very in-depth on prevention, cure, vaccination and other aids, but I’d rather you get the information straight from the source. Linked below you’ll find all the information you need to be a better protected fisherman, ready to land that next lunker!

Tight lines and safe fishing everybody!

Recent F.E. bacteria cases here
Streptococcus resource
More resources on Strep
First Aid Kit resources
Sewer runoff info
Naturally occurring bacteria
Water borne parasites