How do I report a diseased fish or fish kill?

If you catch a diseased fish or observe a fish kill take the following steps:

• Note the waterbody, date, fish species, and approximate number of dead/dying fish
• If you caught a suspicious-looking fish, place the fish in a plastic bag and then in a cooler on ice
• Contact your local fisheries biologist or call the DNR TIP line - 1-800-TIP-Wisconsin DNR - (800) 847-9367
• DO NOT BRING POTENTIALLY DISEASED FISH TO DNR SERVICE STATIONS OR HATCHERIES
• DO NOT COLLECT FISH SAMPLES FROM A FISH KILL
• The local fisheries biologist will contact you as soon as they are available and will make the determination about whether the fish should be examined or not.
• We are encouraging anglers to retain suspicious-looking fish as part of their daily bag limit for examination by the local fisheries biologist.
• The DNR is limited by staff time, financial resources, and laboratory capacity for VHS testing. Therefore, we must prioritize which fish/fish kills we examine in order to ensure that the most likely cases are examined and tested before the less likely ones. Our staff will not have time to visit every occurrence of dead fish or examine every potentially diseased caught fish.

Your understanding and assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.