Reprinted from my July 8, 2007 in the Morgantown Dominion Post
Two weeks ago there was a national new story on flying carp in the Mississippi River. Perhaps you saw it. When a motor boat goes up the river these big carp jump out of the water, and there are so many flying fish that some hit people in the boats. Many fish jump into the boats. It’s all a bit humorous to watch, but from an ecological point of view, these flying fish are a disaster in the making.
The fish are Silver Carp, native to Asia, and brought to America by fish farmers in Arkansas. They were imported to eat phytoplankton growing in catfish ponds, and also as a possible food source. More on that in a minute.
They feed on phytoplankton, which is a common food for our native fish larvae, fish juveniles, and native mussels. But when farm ponds flooded in the early 1990's, this exotic was released into the Mississippi River and they’ve moved down to Louisiana and north into many tributaries in Illinois and North Dakota. They eat a ton and grow rapidly to as much as 80 pounds though 15-25 pounds is more common. A 40 pound fish will eat around 15 pounds of food per day. This obviously makes them a major competitor for native fish.
They also breed rapidly so numbers are growing by leaps and bounds where these carp are found. So much so that they have become the dominant fish in many parts of the Mississippi and it’s tributaries. State and federal wildlife agencies are working hard to keep this carp out of the Great Lakes. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a temporary electronic barrier in 2002. A much bigger barrier has recently been completed on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Cannel connecting the Illinois River (where Silver Carp reside) to Lake Michigan. So far, so good. But the concern for the natural food chain and native fish in Lake Michigan is very real.
I don’t look for an electronic barrier to prevent this carp from eventually getting to the Great Lakes. Barges going thru the barrier can suck some fish or eggs with them, even though the technology is supposed to prevent that. Others could be inadvertently dumped into such waters by fishermen using small Silver Carp as bait. Or they might be dumped into the Great Lakes on purpose by someone who has a grudge against a federal agency. Stranger things have happened.
Silver Carp are a huge aquaculture fish in China and other parts of Asia. In fact, more pounds of Silver Carp are raised for food than any other fish in the world. Aha, using them for food might be a controlling factor, but the facts are that carp have never been a "food" species in our country. Even so, there are signs that this might change. Netting in the Illinois River can yield thousands of pounds of these carp per day, and some are being processed and sold to Asian-American communities in California, New York and other major cities. Some fish processors are even hoping to develop markets for these fish in Asian countries. However, right now, the demand comes nowhere close to the supply.
Some say that the name "carp" is the problem. Americans don’t relate well to that name when it comes to eating fish. In fact, there are those who want to change it’s name, and still others who want to try other approaches, such as smoking them, to create a "fish" market in the United States.
As to their jumping abilities. Noone really knows what triggers this, but apparently motor boat sounds, when they reach a certain RPM, trigger this behavior and in certain parts of Midwestern rivers, even something as simple as water skiing can be a hazard to your health.
I’ve known about these flying fish for several years as friends have bowfished for them. Just hop in the back of a boat with bow fishing tackle and shoot the carp as they jump out of the water. Obviously, bow fishing will never be a threat to populations of this crazy, flying fish from the Orient. Hopefully researchers can come up with an answer, but my imagination isn’t able to come up with any possible solution to this growing ecological problem.
