This is the email i received from them

Yes it is true but you can still come to fish, below is a recent press release for you to read.



Fish Deaths, The Lake at Barston



20th September 2007



You may be aware that we have lost a number of Carp from both the Matchpool and Barston Lake over the last month or so, as have many fisheries around the Midlands and indeed around the country. We have lost around 50% of the Carp stock from the Matchpool and 10% of the Carp stock from the Barston Lake and the reason for this is a viral infection called Koi Herpesvirus (KHV). This is a serious virus and could have affected up to 80% of the stock, so we seem to have either suffered a mild occurrence or most of the fish have fought of the virus. The virus is contagious in fish, there is no danger to human health, birds or other animals or other species of fish other than Carp. The virus can be spread by fish to fish contact, and the flooding earlier on in the year has been blamed for spreading the virus, also fisherman using nets which are still wet from a previous session can spread the disease as could any other means of water contamination ie, birds going from one water to another or dogs swimming in lakes etc. Much is still unknown about the virus at the moment but much research is currently in progress. We have taken all precautions possible at this time and have notified the relevant authorities, the Environment Agency (EA) and The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and we are taking their advise on the situation.



Following our meeting yesterday with Cefas, it appears that of the previous cases in this country (26 cases reported last year and 13 this year, note, reported and officially diagnosed!) a reoccurrence is unlikely following a winter.



Fishing is still allowed on all of the lakes (Nets must be dry) and we are considering our options with regard to restocking. Match weights are down due to the situation but the silver fishing is still good with up to 80lbs winning matches (inc some Carp) and the Carp fishing is still good as the bigger Carp have not been affected as much as the smaller fish.

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www.salvesen-angling-club.co.uk

why don't they release the names of the other 12 venues or do they want to spread it to pools that's not got it, why the big secret????

Is this just the start of something much bigger? Barston is not the only fishery affected by KHV in the Midlands others include nearby Packington - Somers and Leigh Sinton Farm at Malvern, add to those the Jam Factory Nr Worcester which has closed two pools down due to significant fish deaths and you have to wonder if we are sitting on a time bomb.
In the case of Barston Nigel has to be applauded for he took immediate steps to ascertain the problem and has been nothing but honest, lets hope that other fisheries act as responsibly.
Given that my club has its own carp pool I have done a fair bit of searching on the web and its fair to say that the drying of nets is an important deterent in transfering this disease, have these new type stink bags-boxes added to the problem whereby wet nets are being transfered from venue to venue, I know that I hang mine out to dry before being used on the next match, should we as matchmen be looking to having a duplicate set of nets to ensure we are taking totally dry one each time we go out where time does not allow for the complete drying, should commercials be providing nets.

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This KHV the E.A. have diagnosed would/should kill every carp in a lake within 48 hour's, so i don't know wot it is,but loads of fisheries have something wrong, most since the flood's,The ph balance changing suddenly can cause immune systems to deteriate,and leave carp open to things that don't normally effect them.

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AIRITY BOY
198 TONS

After a bit of research i am now a bit worried about fishing the individual intersite, i don't want to spread it to other fisheries

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www.salvesen-angling-club.co.uk

BRAVO

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Team Mosella Black Country

I personally think we have been fishing for ages with this virus ...... its pretty clear that drying of nets kills most diseases and cannot see any reason for not carrying on fishing..But i think we should know what venues are infected ..Mr Harrhy has had the balls to tell us about his predicament and i for one applaud that.I think the floods have probably caused more trouble than we can imagine.This being the tip of a very large ice berg.

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probably the biggest wind up artist in Birmingham

I applaude Neil at Barston for coming out in the open. I must say IMHO that I have never been a big believer in dipping nets prior to fishing, if the fisheries state that we must dip then do so but on these big venues the dips will soon become contaminated. so the only sure fire way to eradicate any parasites that may be on your nets is to dry them out completely. I have experienced KHV at first hand and it is not forgiving it will kill any carp in its path, no known cure. But another theory is all the rain we have been having and what chemicals have been washed into the water tables and off the feilds into lakes. I really do think fishery owners have got to tighten there belts and really take the threat seriously. I was shocked to read on another forum that some one was boasting about catching a 13lb koi carp, If I was a fishery owner and knew who had placed it in my lakes I would ban them for life, this is one sure way of spreading disease. If this get out of proportion then it will not do any favours for the sport of angling let alone the owners. So it is up to us as anglers to eradicate the threat before it gets any worse.

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Regards Billy Boy

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I think we have to look at this with some degree of common sense the virus only effects carp, which are not an indigenus species to this country being introduced by monks to stew ponds as food for the table, they have in some way spread through out our waterways be it by rivers flooding into residential pools or by delibrate and illegal stocking, I caught my first carp on the Warwickshire Avon well over 30 years ago, by the same time I had witnessed a 17lb carp being caught in a match on the North Bank of the Nene, so fish in wrong places are not new, and not all are deliberate acts, commercials and clubs should have EA30 permission to stock forms for each new stocking, the EA30 form would cover a health check unfortunately it did not cover KHV I am not sure that it still does.
Worse than that is that some fishery owners will not be as honest as Nigel Harrhy at Barston and tell us they have or had a problem, some will even restock without permission, yet we could quite easily be going there and helping to transfer the disease.
Using a disenfectant in my opinion is a waste of time, as most need total immersion for periods of time up to half an hour how many fisheries actually watch , let alone conduct the dipping of nets, which by the way should be replenished every 5 days, I have been to fisheries were it looked like they had not been replenished in weeks.
We may have come to the end of the line with carp soup waters and may just have to be used to catching smaller bags of fish like roach and tench and perch, I know if I was a commercial water owner that I would be reluctant to restock with carp

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But the craziest thing will be those 12 fisheries and others will more than likely restock to the same levels for next year, because of the demand for carp and huge weights.
I myself would not like to knowingly carry on fishing a pool that is suffering from KHV, putting lots of sick fish into a net for 5 hours will only cause more undue stress on a fish thats immune system is already working overtime trying to fight a killer disease.
Whilst i sympathise with these owners surely they know by now that huge stocking levels with carp is really playing Russian roulette and their pools are a time bomb just waiting for the slightest problem or conditions to cause more misery and hardship for themselves