Big Head Carp. - Mississippi River – Walleye - Mississippi River – Walleye - Page 2

The following post came from “Wisconsin Fishing Reports – Great Lakes Salmon Angler Posts”. Its long – but has some excellent information.
“ThougGiant Carp Ready to Eat Way Through Great Lakes By Julie Deardorff The latest invasive creature threatening to wreak havoc on the Great Lakes is an Asian carp so immense and ravenous that officials warn it could devastate native species by gobbling up all their food. An escapee from Arkansas catfish farms, bighead carp are lurking just 25 miles away from Lake Michigan in the Illinois River. The fish, which can grow to more than 100 pounds and is nicknamed “river rabbit” for its reproductive abilities, could infiltrate the lake this year. Officials had hoped a $2.2 million temporary electrified barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal at Romeoville would halt the Asian carp invasion. But leaders of a Canadian-American commission that monitors the Great Lakes basin have urged the United States to install a second more permanent barrier to prevent the waterway from becoming a “revolving door” for unwelcome species. The concern is over the fish’s voracious appetite, which threatens the bottom of the food chain. Bighead carp eat up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in vegetation, microscopic animal life or native mussels and fish, depleting food stocks for native filter feeders such as paddlefish, gizzard shad and bigmouth buffalo. They also compete with larval and juvenile fish and mussels. Many fear the carp will cause more long-term economic and ecological damage than better-known invasive species such as the sea lamprey, which devastated trout populations in the 1950s in Lake Superior, and the zebra mussel, which has clogged industrial facilities in the lakes and overpowered native mussel species. “[Asian carp] have the potential to significantly impact the Great Lakes salmon and trout fishery,” said Jerry Rasmussen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist in Rock Island. “They’re consuming a tremendous amount of food. And they’re taking from the bottom.” Leaping fish not so funny Meanwhile, recreational users of the water might also feel some impact. Asian carp have an odd penchant for hurling themselves over or into boats, sometimes striking people. Neck injuries, broken noses and bruises are just a few of the traumas inflicted by the leaping fish, according to Pam Thiel, project leader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fishery Resources Office in LaCrosse, Wis. Some researchers on boats have started using cookie sheets or garbage can lids as shields. The airborne carp could sail over the electrified barrier in the canal, some officials fear. “You come anywhere near these fish with electricity, and their response is to jump 20 feet in the air,” said Rob Maher, commercial fishing program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Maher, who is 6 foot 2 and 225 pounds, said he has been knocked to the floor of a boat by a jumping Asian carp. “Certain speeds and the vibration from the propeller cause them to panic and jump out of the water,” he said. “It’s amusing until you get hit by one.” The common carp, introduced by European immigrants in the 1800s, is now so widespread that it is considered native. But in the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. fish farmers in Southern states introduced Asian carp as a cheap solution to disease and algae problems. A few municipalities employed the carp to help clean wastewater before it was discharged. Since then, three Asian carp species–grass carp, bighead carp and silver carp–have been released or escaped into the wild and are reproducing in many rivers and streams of the Mississippi River basin, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Black carp, which fish farmers use to help control a parasite found in snails, are believed to be used in the Southeast and in Missouri. Many wildlife biologists worry that it’s only a matter of time before black carp escape as well and begin eating native mussels. “We’re creating one of the most serious biodiversity problems in the country, and that’s the loss of our mid-continent native mussel populations,” said Jim Martin, a fisheries biologist in Oregon and board member of the National Wildlife Federation. “The combination of the zebra mussels coming in from the north and the bighead carp and [possibly the] black carp are putting the squeeze on the native mussels.” Escapees from Arkansas The bighead and silver carp species, used by Arkansas catfish farmers in the early 1970s, escaped captivity during flooding in the early 1990s and populated the Mississippi River. They are particularly threatening invasive species because they grow large very quickly and, with no predators, rapidly become the dominant fish species. The female can lay 1,000 eggs per year. Recent growth has been exponential. Between 1988 and 1992, Illinois commercial fishermen harvested fewer than 1,300 pounds of bighead and silver carp in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, according to researchers with the Illinois Natural History Survey. By 1994, that total had increased to more than 5.5 tons. Since 1997, it has exceeded 55 tons per year. “We have a $4 billion sport and commercial fishery in the Great Lakes. That whole fishery is literally at risk,” said Dennis Schornack, co-chairman of the International Joint Commission, which is calling for the U.S. and Canada to take immediate action. “This could turn the Great Lakes into a carp pond.” The possibility that the carp will succeed in reaching Lake Michigan was almost too unnerving to contemplate for officials who have no strategy in place if they do get there. “The idea is to keep them out,” Schornack said. “There has to be a certain critical mass to establish a self-sustaining population. Just one or two won’t do it. But we don’t know how many more and that’s why it’s urgent they never get in. They’re extraordinarily hard to remove.” The electrified barrier in the Sanitary and Ship Canal, a series of underwater cables that generate an electric current, was designed to thwart the attack of another invasive species, the round goby. Although the barrier wasn’t operable in time to stop that fish, it is now considered the best deterrent to the Asian carp. As a fish gets closer, the strength of the electricity increases and the fish begins to feel a tingling sensation, akin too banging one’s funny bone, said Thiel of the Fish and Wildlife Service. In order to minimize the effect, the fish will turn sideways and be flushed back downstream. Better protection needed Two barriers are needed for an extra margin of safety, said Schornack. Currently there is no backup generator, should the power fail. In addition, smaller fish can get through. On Saturday Mayor Richard Daley said he would ask Congress for a $700,000 appropriation to strengthen the electrical barrier. Commercial fishermen who find carp in their nets generally discard them, since North Americans generally reject carp as a food fish. Asian cultures do eat carp and prefer that the fish be kept alive until immediately before cooking. Some groups are hoping to create a commercial market for the fish, an odd-looking creature whose head appears to be attached upside down. The Arkansas Agriculture Research Service says six of 10 people who tried bighead carp preferred it to tuna. Thiel, who tested the electrified barrier with her hand, also decided to sample all the invasive species while on a trip to China. While agreeing that the carp was a tasty protein, she said harvesting wouldn’t be the answer to the problem. “Once something arrives in an ecosystem, it is impossible to eliminate and difficult to control,” she said. “We wouldn’t make a dent in its population.” Article received on Thursday, July 18 2002 at 08:24 EDT For more news from Chicago Tribune click here Help | About Us | Feedback | Advertise With Us | Privacy Policy | Legal Notices © 2002 Digital City, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ht this would be interesting reading

Pollution by non-native species is the worst kind of pollution- because once in a system – they are nearly impossible to eliminate.