Asian Carp (Let's fix this)

[shu9265]

Here is an idea on how the Asian Carp thing can be brought to a profitable solution.

Why don't we the fishermen of this country get together and net or commercial fish these things into oblivion?

It seems that almost any other species has been taken to the brink of extinction by "over fishing"

So why not do it on purpose ?

These fish are table fare in many parts of the world, why can't the folks here in the USA see this and capitalize on it?

Seems like some of these big market companies can figure out a way to gill net these things out of the rivers and can or process these things for sale outside the country. Or even here in the US.

Just seems like such a waste for all the rest of us to sit back and bitch about the problems these fish are going to cause if and when they get into the great lakes water shed.

There has to be some way that these fish can be removed from the rivers and put to some good use.

Why not use them in the "feed the needy" programs.

There are tons and tons of food right there for the harvesting, why aren't we making use of it ?

Come on folks wake up ! Here is an answer to the food shortage, and it will help save the ecosystem at the same time.

[GLF]

I think I saw on a news video one time, that they will not purchase asian carp that come from a river.

[Rayman96]

I think I saw on a news video one time, that they will not purchase asian carp that come from a river.

Easy solution. Do the same as the commercial suppliers.

Locate the processing plant on a big lake.

Label as lake carp.

What?

Fish do migrate! That's how they got here in the first place! :D

[Nailer]

Cat Food?

[shu9265]

That's what I am talking about.

There has to be a use for these undesirable species.

They are there, just need to get the right group of people interested.

Just imagine the boost it would give to one (or more ) of these small towns along the river that are in dire economic situations.

[Boltman]

As for this Asian Carp, I've been watching TV and there have been a lot of channels showing the Asian carp being Fed to people under different names, and they like it.

IE the chilan Sea Bass.... go ahead and google that fish and find out it's prior name... they had t change its name to get people to eat it, the name turned them off but its one of the most popular dishes around...

and I have a question that I don't know the answer too......

1 Why won't a Very hungry King Salmon it the young carp? Do they not like there taste? It seems to me that whenI've caught some kings, there's been a plethera of fish in their stomach.'

[Cork Dust]

About sixty percent of the Asian Carp produced in the US via fish culture operations are exported to the Asian community in the Toronto area. Asians prefer to purchase their fish alive and then prepare them for the table.'

Please keep one point in mind, Common Carp are not native to the Americas. They, too, were an imported species. Carp-Asian form or European- are excellent gill net avoiders. Gillnets catch fish by girth, consequently they are not species selective. The by-catch of a gill net set would likely decimate other fish populations at a faster rate because Silver and Big Head Carp are multiple spawners. Their reporductive rates would offset to some degree mortalities induced via a commercial fishery.

There is still one aspect of Great Lakes Community fish population structure that may offset Asian Carp proliferation. Alewife are particulate feeders. They eat larval fish as well as zooplankton, Diporeia, and Mysis diluviana. Cisco and Emerald Shiner stocks have recovered significantly in Lake Huron following the collapse of the Alewife population. If Asian Carp larvae have broad niche overlap with Alewife, I garantee you that they will be fed on by all fish larvae predators, including Alewife. Paricularly in a food energy starved system like the current Great Lakes.

[WALRANGER5]

About sixty percent of the Asian Carp produced in the US via fish culture operations are exported to the Asian community in the Toronto area. Asians prefer to purchase their fish alive and then prepare them for the table.'

Please keep one point in mind, Common Carp are not native to the Americas. They, too, were an imported species. Carp-Asian form or European- are excellent gill net avoiders. Gillnets catch fish by girth, consequently they are not species selective. The by-catch of a gill net set would likely decimate other fish populations at a faster rate because Silver and Big Head Carp are multiple spawners. Their reporductive rates would offset to some degree mortalities induced via a commercial fishery.

There is still one aspect of Great Lakes Community fish population structure that may offset Asian Carp proliferation. Alewife are particulate feeders. They eat larval fish as well as zooplankton, Diporeia, and Mysis diluviana. Cisco and Emerald Shiner stocks have recovered significantly in Lake Huron following the collapse of the Alewife population. If Asian Carp larvae have broad niche overlap with Alewife, I garantee you that they will be fed on by all fish larvae predators, including Alewife. Paricularly in a food energy starved system like the current Great Lakes.

The Asian Carp larvae and YOY will be in the warmwater areas, backwaters drowned river mouths, bays etc... Any predator will have to be a warm water fish. asian carp also eat larval fish among other things, I don't believe Alewives can compete with the carp, they will control the spawning/nursery areas and the Zooplankton, if allowed to grow to big. All the science I can find says we should be increasing and maintaining every predator we can find, and not just for the carp. Search Asian Carp spawning habits, I believe you'll find they don't need a hundred miles of river to spawn. They have been commercial fishing them, and they still are doubling, the ones they miss just spawn and refill the hole you just made. Only 25% is usable as food, small ones thrown back. Predators is our best bet at controlling them.

[LongLine]

Net them all, grind them up & use them as fertilizer. Isn't that what our ancestoral native Americans did with some fish?

[sherman51]

thats a great idea, we just need some big company or our goverment to get something like this organized. kinda like back in the old days when snagging was legal in michigan. they were people standing shoulder to shoulder in the rivers where this was legal. i fished manistee lake and if you didnt get out early you didnt get a good spot. maby they should try that on these fish. it would atleast thin them down alittle. or even make netting legal and promote it.

sherman

[WALRANGER5]

Net them all, grind them up & use them as fertilizer. Isn't that what our ancestoral native Americans did with some fish?

They're very good at avoiding nets, and making them worth money gets them protected. Turn them into Perch and Walleye, (predators) problem solved. One resturant in Chicago calls the Shanghai Bass, to trick people, don't have to trick anyone to eat Perch and Walleye. There's a couple good studies by a James Garvey, you might be interested in, small fish have to be affected or there will be no population reduction.

[steeliebob]

Without the help of the federal government the asian carp would not be here to begin with. The feds need to open some processing plants and pay commercial fishermen to harvest them. Now when a foreign country needs our aid we can send them canned tuna dolphin free and made in the usa. This operation could create a few hundred jobs, we need the jobs by the way.

[WALRANGER5]

I just got back from Bath illinois, The Redneck Flyin Asian carp tournament. 203 boats caught 8,977 flyin carp 432 in 2 hours top boat. Thia area has been commercial fished for the last few years, yet there was more fish than i've ever seen. 6th trip down. There's a study that came out June 2011, Invasion and predation in aquatic systems Judith S. Weis, I believe you will find very interesting. We have native predators for baby Asian carp, several we just need more. As far as Alewives eating larval asian carp, if the carp spawn while alewives are in close during June spawn, they will probably eat some, but the during the other 3 or 4 spawns the Alewives and salmon will be out in the lake playing tag, while the carp will be safe. We need warmwater predators, for the nearshore spawning/nursery areas, neither salmon or alewives can even survive in there. This has allowed the other invasives to build thier numbers up to get the upper fin in the game if you will. I guarantee Perch and Walleyes will eat asian Carp. The Feds want money for rayguns and water cannons and studies?

[WALRANGER5]

Asian carp were found in North Dakota a couple weeks ago, and now they found them past the Coon Rapids dam in Minnesota. The carp got past 9 dam/locks on the west side of Wisconsin, how they get in is moot, in is in. Lack of predators is what all the experts say happened, (overfishing the lake trout allowed the alewives etc.... ) But lake trout are not the only predator we have/had. Common carp control experts found out over the years, that after removal of carp regardless of how, poison netting etc... stocking of predators is essential to control young carp. The ones you miss spawn and they actually increase this is being proven in Illinois, with the asian carp. They took out 30 million pounds of carp last year, and they still doubled in population. Without predators or competition you just made a nice spawning/nursery area. Illinois has the largest Asian Carp population in the world, even tho they have been taking out millions of pounds. Having a high native fish/predator population makes the lakes resistant to invasive species. Lack of which gives us the invasive problems we have now, this is our fault. We need predators in the near shore spawning nursery areas, Perch walleye and other native fish fit this bill, and could be restored quite eaisly. There's tackle tax money we already paid for restoring native fisheries, obtaing permission that's another matter.

[sslopok]

Dogfish would be the perfect warm water predator to take of the asian carp young.

[steeliebob]

Somebody needs to fire all of the brass at the USFWS every single one of them. When they are all fired replace them with people who want to get off of their *** and do something about asian carp. For the last 10 years and the next 30 years all the USFWS will do is eat up our $$$$ and study them. A first grader probably could tell you more about asian carp than anyone at the USFWS knows about them. Just like wolves lets see how many elk, moose, buffalo, and deer that they can wipe out. Meanwhile we will protect them and study them. Nobody in the United States has better job security than a USFWS employee. As long as there are wolves and asian carp their jobs are pretty safe. No worry if you are a USFWS employee millions of hunters, fishermen, and trappers will support you just keep studying. I will bet I have seen a hundred different clips on you tube of USFWS employees riding around in boats watching asian carp jump.

[Rascal Trophy Fishing]

I've heard and seen more ideas on the invasive species here in this short blog, than any or all the news agencies combined over the last few years. You guys should be in charge of this problem, then I KNOW the problem would get fixed pretty soon. Thanks for the education and more to come I hope.

[WALRANGER5]

I've heard and seen more ideas on the invasive species here in this short blog, than any or all the news agencies combined over the last few years. You guys should be in charge of this problem, then I KNOW the problem would get fixed pretty soon. Thanks for the education and more to come I hope.

If I may encourage everyone to google (Biotic resistance on the increase native predators) Predator prey is good enough for me but biotic-resistance is bio speak. You will find we can control all invasive species with native predators. One paper states "We found strong evidence that native predators confer biotic-resistance that limits the distribution of an invasive species" and "strongly aligned with high densities of native predators" Includes zebra/quagga addressed in one paper. Please read this for yourselves. Also you may want to find (Asian carp in Wisconsin waters 1996-2011) this map shows the west side of Wisconsin they're screwed, we're next. Check the main Asian carp spread map, USGS, and remember there is only 2 points with a "barrier" to stop them. Barriers alone will not stop them, we can control how many predators they run into, which is the best long term defence we have. Native Predators or Biotic resistance is the only solution, to Bio pollution!

[WALRANGER5]

Somebody needs to fire all of the brass at the USFWS every single one of them. When they are all fired replace them with people who want to get off of their *** and do something about asian carp. For the last 10 years and the next 30 years all the USFWS will do is eat up our $$$$ and study them. A first grader probably could tell you more about asian carp than anyone at the USFWS knows about them. Just like wolves lets see how many elk, moose, buffalo, and deer that they can wipe out. Meanwhile we will protect them and study them. Nobody in the United States has better job security than a USFWS employee. As long as there are wolves and asian carp their jobs are pretty safe. No worry if you are a USFWS employee millions of hunters, fishermen, and trappers will support you just keep studying. I will bet I have seen a hundred different clips on you tube of USFWS employees riding around in boats watching asian carp jump.

You are right, most of the "plans" seem include long term employment for someone, and high costs. Asian Carp doubled again last year, monitoring is just whoops there's another one, with no action. Please see my other post and search Biotic-resistance, we pay biologists to know this stuff, how can I find it, and they can't?

[WALRANGER5]

They just announced they wont speed up the studies now it's 2015 maybe early 2016. Google GLMRIS you'll find the site. They released inventory of available controls and are taking comments until Feb. 17th. Using predators fits thier criteria, and is listed as available. The barrier will stop nothing, please go to the comments and vote for using predators, tell all your friends and nieghbors! If you look at the whole picture, we have no choice, politics will not fix this problem!

[steeliebob]

Mabey we should privatize and go after the Asian Carp. Take the money that we pay the USFWS and give it to private companies through grant monies and within a few years multiple companies will have multiple stratagies to attack them. Using multiple stratagies will help deflate their population and make them less of a risk to the great lakes.

[WALRANGER5]

Mabey we should privatize and go after the Asian Carp. Take the money that we pay the USFWS and give it to private companies through grant monies and within a few years multiple companies will have multiple stratagies to attack them. Using multiple stratagies will help deflate their population and make them less of a risk to the great lakes.

The Asian Carp plan is supposed to be multiple stratagies already, native predators is one "tool" we can use. Find the GLMRIS website Inventory of available controls, take the survey vote for native predators. Currently it looks like the bulk of the plans are barriers everywhere, this does not reduce thier numbers, predators will. Is $5 billion a year to control invasive species a public cost or a $5 billion dollar a year industry? Depends on your point of view doesn't it?

[WALRANGER5]

I got in on the GLMRIS conference call Jan 5th 2012, regarding shipping traffic in the Chicago canal. The cost of operating the electric Asian Carp barrier, breaks down to $22,727 dollars per day. Anything but separation means all taxpayers in the U.S. would be stuck paying this forever. Keep in mind this is only one barrier, they are proposing many across the country. Barriers do not reduce invasive species numbers, never will. Barrier control is stuck in one spot. Restoring native fish/predators turns the entire body of water into a control, that does reduce invasive species, and does not cost thousands of dollars a day to maintain!

[steeliebob]

The United States should use Asian Carp (they are edible) as a food source. Commercially harvest them there seems to be alot available to be harvested. Process them and send them to prisons and jails across the country. If we feed them to inmates we reduce the cost of feeding them by millions of dollars per year. I am certain that they could eat wild hogs and some other invasive species as well. If we could feed inmates 6 meals a week that consist of invasive species look at all of the money that could be saved.

[Priority1]

These fish could also be used for animal feed and fertilizer. Who knows, you may be eating a McCarp sandwich down the road. A slice of cheese and some tartar sauce will camouflage the taste of anything. Large scale commercial harvest should have been underway a long time ago.