This isn’t good news.

Invasive bighead carp caught in Lower St. Croix River

By Dennis Lien
[email protected]

An invasive bighead carp was caught recently by a commercial fisherman in the Lower St. Croix River, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced today.

The carp, one of at least two Asian carp species that are threatening Minnesota lakes and rivers, weighed 27 pounds, the DNR said.

Imported from Asia four decades ago by southern fish farms, bighead and silver carp eventually escaped or were released into the wild and have slowly been making their way up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The silver carp leap out of the water when bothered by motor sounds and vibrations.

The DNR has been on the lookout for them for years and had considered installing electronic or acoustic barriers in the river to keep them south until a better solution is found.

Several carp have been caught on the rivers bordering eastern Minnesota. This is the second bighead carp caught in the St. Croix. In 1996, a bighead was caught in the St. Croix north of its confluence with the Mississippi River.

Here’s another article from the Star Tribune.

A bighead Asian carp, an invasive species that poses serious danger to aquatic life in Minnesota, has been caught in the St. Croix River near Hastings, state conservation officials said Wednesday.

The catch of the 27-pound fish was made Monday by a commercial fisherman in the St. Croix, just before it feeds into the Mississippi River, said Brad Parsons, fisheries manager for the Department of Natural Resources’ central region.

This particular species of carp is not to be confused with the Asian silver carp, another type of invasive fish that for years has been made famous in videos leaping high out of the water and banging into boaters around the country.

Although not the first bighead catch in the St. Croix/Mississippi area, it is rare. This is only the seventh catch since 1996, the DNR said. The catch in 1996 and Monday’s represent the northern-most snaggings of a bighead among the seven, said Luke Skinner, supervisor of the DNR’s invasive species unit. The others were closer to Lake Pepin and below, Skinner said.

Parsons said that this latest catch does not suggest any reason to be more concerned about Minnesota’s immediate ecological future.

“This tells us very little” about how many more bighead might be in Minnesota’s St. Croix or Mississippi, he said. “Very likely this is just a random one, that with all the high water, migrated up from the lower Mississippi.”

As for its gender, Parsons said, “I haven’t cut it open” yet to make that determination.

Bighead carp are a threat because they consume vast amounts of plankton and out-compete native fish for food and habitat.

Silver carp are plentiful in southern portions of the Mississippi and many of its tributaries.

Near Chicago, the bighead and silver carp are being kept out of Lake Michigan — for now — by electric barriers.

In 2008, a silver carp was caught by a commercial fisherman in the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wis. — much farther north than its previously known location in Iowa waters.

I have been lucky enough, like many people here, to have been around the St. Croix for much of my life. It scares me to think what these carp will do to the river in the next ten to fifteen years.

I didnt figure it was going to take long for their invasion. When the gates on various damns are wide open on years such as this what is stopping them? Who needs to spend money on a fish ladder?

It was just a matter of time to get these here.

I suppose the carp dudes will have fun with them.

Yikes. The only remotely good news related to these crappy fish is that the bass fishing on the Illinois River seems to have come back quite a bit from what I’ve read. This despite the fact that you can practically walk across carp backs from one side of a slough to the other.

“”
Imported from Asia four decades ago by southern fish farms, bighead and silver carp eventually escaped or were released into the wild and have slowly been making their way up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The silver carp leap out of the water when bothered by motor sounds and vibrations.
“””

Ya ever get the feeling we just don’t learn?

Al

Quote:

---

I suppose the carp dudes will have fun with them.

---

Have fun with them…..if I hook one yes but they are tough to catch hook and line.

Do I want them here. NO way! I fish carp because they are here. I prefer to catch Buffalo and Redhorse that are native.

I saw that fish and it is pretty impressive size.

Already seen a utube where the bow guys were shooting them off their bows while they were in flight, maybe add shotguns and we have a new sport or two?

caught one years and years ago on the croix in hudson. Didn’t even know what kind of damage them buggers could do back then.

Yikes