Avian Bird Flu

[Mr. X]

Admittedly, general hunting not fishing -- although of some very tenuous relevance (my first spearfishing trip of the year will be just down the road from a swanary with 200 migratory swans ! Also, if you get it, it may effect your ability to freedive). Short but it provides some interesting insights:

http://www.countryside-alliance.org/...501&Itemid=826

[perow1]

Shure, it is a virus behaving in a disturbing manner, jumping between species and even to mammals, such as human beings. We should be aware and alert/informed, but not stupid careful.

If the virus stops us from doing everyday things before it has turned to a (theoretical) pandemia than it ia a terrible virus in deed. A over careful human being is no good. But to intentionally go and dive among bird is as stupid.

[naiad]

I am very concerned about avian flu. If it is found in the UK, then I won't be doing any freshwater diving this year.

The risk is probably very small, but I am very prone to flu - I get it much worse than everyone else, and it has made my life a misery in winter for as long as I can remember. Only in the last couple of years, when I have had the flu vaccine, has it got any better. Now I only get it about once a year, instead of about five times. A particularly nasty bout last year has left me with a scarred lung.

Better safe than sorry.

Lucia

[Mr. X]

I should have mentioned that the Swanary is a fresh water lake/pond adjacent to the sea. I will be going in the sea. Not really at risk -- thought the precautions were interesting on that link though e.g. Britain's usual "cure" will be used i.e. cull everything, & we are still importing live birds from France! no doubt this is why France & the EU finally lifted the British beef ban this week -- the boot is now on the other foot, we should be stopping all imports of live birds (heard 2 experts repeat this warning on the radio this week).

Yes, flu jabs seem like a sensible precaution -- it is hard enough for an asthmatic to breath without respiratory tract infections or other illnesses. I am not asthmatic, so I prefer to let my immune system do battle (hoping that "what does not kill me makes me stronger"...although J. Gordon Liddy, of Watergate fame & a legend in his own mind, said that so perhaps they are not words to live by...).

[naiad]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

Yes, flu jabs seem like a sensible precaution -- it is hard enough for an asthmatic to breath without respiratory tract infections or other illnesses. I am not asthmatic, so I prefer to let my immune system do battle (hoping that "what does not kill me makes me stronger"...

With most things I become immune quickly. I have been putting my hands in pond water and mud for as long as I can remember, often with cuts on them, and handling animals of all kinds, and I have never once been ill as a result.

With flu it is a different matter. It has left me with long-term problems, and I haven't built up any immunity. If it were not for flu, I wouldn't have any health problems at all. I can blame it for almost all the times I have been to the doctor or the hospital!

Mostly I do believe in "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger"... like holding my breath for several minutes, etc...

Maybe it's the only way to explain the health benefits of apnea...

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by naiad

...I have been putting my hands in pond water and mud for as long as I can remember, often with cuts on them, and handling animals of all kinds, and I have never once been ill as a result...

Uh gross! You wouldn't catch me doing that. Yuck! (Just kidding ).

[spaghetti]

I knew a lake here in Italy where spearfishing is allowed, full of pikes, eels, perch, tench, blackbass, trouts, lake mullets, lake cods (!). And this is all gone, like tears in the rain

[naiad]

Why? Is spearfishing banned, or have the fish gone? Is it because of bird flu?

[spaghetti]

Because it is super-extra-full-plenty/crowded/infested by thousands of F@°§]*ing swans, ducks, gulls...My parents live there and have a small boat too. On the 1st april I planned to go there for the opening of the pike fishing season (up to 10kg pikes in a 15meters dive). But doctor says to wait and see what bird flu will issue. And mom will never let me dive...(yes, I'm 37, but you know what a mother can do if she thinks you'll put yourself in danger...)

[foxfish]

Scary stuff 'A'
Here in Guernsey the local government are issuing all sorts of contingency planes. It would seem the usual advice is not to worry but it is difficult not to read some negative story somewhere every day!

[naiad]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

And mom will never let me dive...(yes, I'm 37, but you know what a mother can do if she thinks you'll put yourself in danger...)

Sweet!

I don't know what the situation is in Italy, but if the doctor says not to go, it's better not to. I wouldn't take the risk.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

Because it is super-extra-full-plenty/crowded/infested by thousands of F@°§]*ing swans, ducks, gulls...My parents live there and have a small boat too. On the 1st april I planned to go there for the opening of the pike fishing season (up to 10kg pikes in a 15meters dive). But doctor says to wait and see what bird flu will issue. And mom will never let me dive...(yes, I'm 37, but you know what a mother can do if she thinks you'll put yourself in danger...)

I guess the goose poop would be a health hazard. One place I worked at was inundated with Canada geese -- they tried all sorts of things to get rid of them, short of the obvious solution, including hiring dog handlers. I thought they added character & it seemed silly to even worry about them; the main issue they had seemed to be all the goose poop - although the geese mainly stayed on the wide open lawns & ponds.

I find the idea of diving with 10kg pike strangely disturbing -- for some reason it would worry me much more than a shark of that size...I guess I think of them as I would congor eels .

Mothers are a formidable institution. By all accounts, Italian mothers doubly so!

[spaghetti]

What doctor said is that nobody knows what may happen: there have been no H5N1 positive birds in "my" lake by now, but there are thousands (it's a big lake: 153 km all round) and this is still migratory season. I made a telephone call to the Ministry of Health (they have a bird flu info-line) and they said the same thing. Ministry guy said to me: "no positive bird by now, probably no real danger. But we take no responsability to give you green light for diving in birdy waters"...
Mr.X: Pikes (esox lucius) are fantastic prey for spearfishing, same as barracuda: scary teeth, but if you spear them in the gills it's not difficult to control 'em. Hard is to get close: with a shake of the tail they disappear in a moment. Best technique (if you ever happen to hunt in a pikey lake) is the "caduta" (means "falling down"): with slightly negative buoyancy, let the weights pull you down like a dead-leaf. It's the same technique used for goupers in open water.