CHIMACUM — With toxic blue-green algae still lurking in Anderson Lake, some people have come forward who say they have experienced illnesses allegedly caused from eating fish recently caught in the state park.
Jefferson County Environmental Health Department officials are urging people who may have Anderson Lake fish in refrigerators or freezers not to eat the fish.
Cathy Rogers of Sequim said she was given several trout by her uncle who caught them last week in Anderson Lake.
Rogers and her mother ate the fish over the weekend.
“It was the best fish I ever tasted,” said Rogers.
But their delectable flavor came with a price.
“I got pretty sick,” she said. “I felt like I was going to die.”
Her symptoms were in line with what is expected when ingesting fish caught in blue-green algae-tainted waters.
Dogs stricken fatally
Two pet dogs which swam in Anderson Lake died from the toxic algae, and a third had to be hooked up on a respirator at an animal hospital before eventually recovering.
Jefferson County health officials closed the state park, with Olympia’s blessing, on Monday.
Rogers said she experienced “deep stomach” pains and had diarrhea for several days.
Rogers’ mother, Mary Spencer, also ate the fish and grew ill.
Spencer was taken to the hospital Sunday night. After tests were conducted, it was determined that she had an infection which was probably not connected to eating the trout.
The fish eaten by the two Sequim women were caught in the time between the deaths of the two dogs at Anderson Lake State Park, which remains closed indefinitely.
One dog died after going into a seizure Memorial Day weekend. The same thing happened to the other dog the following weekend.
It is believed that both dogs — plus the third one which recovered — drank tainted water from the lake.
