Outdoors: Asian carp, the worst invaders we’ve ever had

Took a ride down to Allen Park this morning. I watched a large 20- to 22-foot boat being launched. I spoke with one of the fishermen alongside of the boat.

“Are you folks still getting bighead and silver carp this time of year?” I ask.

He assured me that they were, and now there is a fine Chinese market for them.

The crew uses gill nets to harvest these fish. They place the nets three abreast about seven feet apart. They then trim their motor up so it ventilates. They run between the nets trying to push the fish into capture. (The carp are very sound-sensitive and try to flee the noise). The nets capture them and hold them until they can be removed and placed in the bottom of the boat.

Gill nets are then pulled aboard immediately, and any native species are returned gently back into the river. The carp are placed on the bottom of the boat until the fishermen are finished fishing. They are then placed in cool freezer boxes for shipment to China. After that, they are placed in large refrigerated trucks to an airport or processing plant.

Many fish processing plants along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers are now operating these facilities. They are very profitable and have added staff since the carp invasion. Many marinas along both rivers have also hired them to remove the carp from their areas. The carp jump when startled by noise, and many jump in pleasure boats and make a big mess with their slime.

I ran into a group of these fishermen near Spring Valley years ago. At that time, there was no commercial fishing above the Starved Rock Dam. They took their catch to Fulton, which was the only facility that took them. Then the fish were shipped to many restaurants in Illinois and Iowa. We had some of these fish at the Spring Valley Walleye Club years ago, and they were very good eating. There are also no health advisories on them either, as they contain no heavy metals. They are not a bottom feeder. They thrive on two types of plankton, zooplankton and phytoplankton. They feed constantly and grow very fast. They also spawn three times a year.

The concern now is keeping these fish out of the Great Lakes. They have had a bad effect on our native species in the Illinois River due to the plankton consumption. Our young of the year native species need the plankton to grow out of the embryonic stage, and as a result our white bass populations have suffered, as well as the sauger and walleye.

To date, no one has come up with an idea for some type of control on these species. Commercial fishing is the only control, and that hasn’t even put a dent in their population.

These fish entered our waterways in 1996 during a flood. Arkansas had catfish- and Asian carp-rearing ponds back then. The flood filled them up, and the water ran over the ponds, allowing the fish to escape into the river systems. With the availability of food, they prospered, grew and multiplied. They then migrated up all the large rivers in several states. They are even in the southern swamps now, with no end in sight.

Asian carp – the worst invaders we have ever had.