The annual Youth Fishing Day / Kids Can Catch Event down at the Len Thompson Trout Pond was planned for June 3rd, but had to be canceled this year due to concerns about whirling disease affecting some of the local trout population.

Whirling disease is an infectious parasite which affects certain types of fin fish like trout, whitetail and salmon, affecting their nervous system and causing them to continuously swim in circles, eventually causing death.

The hatchery which supplies the Len Thompson Trout Pond had confirmed cases of whirling disease, and all of their trout had to unfortunately be destroyed.

This has occurred at a few hatcheries in Alberta in order to prevent the disease from reaching larger streams, and eventually contaminating all of our waterways.

Although the disease is not harmful to humans if consumed, it is obviously a cause for concern among the trout population here in Alberta.

Bernie Street is the Fishing Chair for the Lacombe Fish and Game Association, and he says destroying the affected trout may be a huge loss for the hatcheries, but it's for the greater health of our water systems.

"Several of the hatcheries, one being just outside of Lacombe, all the fish they had had to be disposed of. So they took quite a hit for that. There are not stocking any of the trout ponds that could drain into river systems, our ponds being one of them...because they are located right next to the Wolf Creek which goes into the Battle River etc, etc. Until they find out more about it, they won't stock our fish ponds, and we can't stock them, and they have to test the fish that are in them to see if it's in there or not, and until we get the ok, we decided just to hang out for this year".

Unfortunately the Len Thompson Trout Pond will not be stocked with trout at all this year.

Some other bodies of water affected by whirling disease in Alberta include the East Stormwater Pond here in Lacombe, the Cast Fish Pond in Castor, Windsor Lake east of Bashaw, and the Mound Red Reservoir south of Pigeon Lake.

For a full list of areas affected by whirling disease, you can visit the Alberta Conservation Association website.

A sign at the entrance of Len Thompson Trout Pond explain how you can help prevent the spread of whirling disease.