Jumping Carp-Great Lakes

[Brian Thomas]

Has anyone heard about these jumping carp that are about 90 miles out of Lake Michigan? They have some type of shock nets put up to keep them out of the Lake. The local news channels from Cleveland did stories on these fish. They said that if they make it into the Great Lakes there will be another mess we have to deal with as far as the "GOOD" fish surviving goes. Does anyone have any further info on these freaks of nature? From what the news said they were imported over here from Asia for food purposes and when the farming ponds they were raised in overflowed due to floods the ran off into rivers such as Mississippi and others and are making their way north.
I thought I misunderstood at first but when I saw the story on other channels I couldnt believe it.

[Brian Thomas]

Please read this!
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/zarticles/071502_asian_carp.htm

[ILLEYE]

I have been catching some here on the Illinois river. They are pretty thick just south of Peoria. I guess they have a shock fence up to keep them out of lake michigan.

[perchjerker]

Focus on: Michigan life
Migration of Asian carp threatens Great Lakes fish
Biologists fear they will destroy food supply of other species
By Eric Slater / Los Angeles Times



CHICAGO -- At the rate of 35 miles a year, Asian carp have migrated north, at times leaping so high that they have smacked boat-borne fishermen and researchers in the face.
They are almost here now and, beyond their unexplained aerial assaults, pose what biologists believe may be the greatest ecological threat ever to North America's largest water system.
Fat, voracious and with a complexion only a dermatologist could love, the carp are just 25 miles from this city's downtown entryway to the Great Lakes. The only thing standing in their way is an experimental electrical curtain.
As long as feet and weighing up to 110 pounds, carp eat as much as half their body weight daily in plankton, the same food virtually every other fish in the lakes eats when it is young. They breed so quickly that Australian biologists call them "river rabbits."
"They could essentially wipe out the base of the food chain in the entire Great Lakes," said Dennis Shornak of the International Joint Commission, which oversees water systems that affect the United States and Canada. "We could honestly end up in a situation where the Great Lakes are nothing more than a carp pond."
With the fish approaching, the commission has taken to lobbying the highest levels of the U.S. and Canadian governments for help, since the issue is of international concern. But many fishery biologists are skeptical that the carp can be kept out of the Great Lakes, and are beginning to consider how to mitigate the damage.
Mitigation has become the less-than-ideal battle method when it comes to other invasive species that couldn't be kept out of the Great Lakes, such as the zebra mussel, which made its way from Europe in the 1980s, transported in the ballast water of ships.
Asian carp, scientists fear, could do exponentially more damage than zebra mussels or any other invasive species in the Great Lakes, including sea lampreys, which decimated trout populations 50 years ago. They are likely to compete for food with such commercial fish as paddlefish, gizzard shad, bigmouth buffalo and virtually every other fish while they're in a larval stage. And once they get in, there is no getting them out.
They pose another dilemma. These fish can jump -- more than 12 feet out of the water.
"It's not a phenomenon you have to wait for," said Pam Thiel, a fishery expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lacrosse, Wis. "Just go to a place where they are dense and they will be flying."
A most impressive sight, from afar.
"They don't mix well with water-skiers, Jet-Skiers and boaters," Thiel added.
Some commercial fishermen have taken to protecting themselves from incoming carp with cookie sheets or garbage can lids.
With large, mottled scales and eyes that seem to have slid halfway down their face, Asian carp are considered trash-fish of the lowest order in the West.
Although their white, low-oil meat is rather tasty, many agree, the fish -- probably because it is a carp -- has never gained a market in North America beyond the Chinatowns in a few major cities.
The much maligned carp do have a place to call home. Halfway around the world in East Asia, the arrival of a migratory school would likely be greeted not by an electric shock but a celebration.
Two species of Asian carp, bighead and silver, are the primary cause of concern here. Imported by Arkansas fish farmers in the early 1970s for their skill as underwater vacuums, the carp were slipped into catfish ponds to gobble up algae blooms.
The fish escaped during heavy floods in the early 1990s, making their way out of the ponds and into tributaries of the Mississippi. They swiftly swam north.
In 1999, according to a study by the Illinois Natural History Survey, researchers found not a single bighead carp in the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, though they were appearing with ever-increasing frequency downstream in the Mississippi. The next year the scientists discovered more than 1,400 of the fish at a single site in the Illinois.
"They went from being nonexistent to being one of the most common fish in the river," said Kevin Irons, a river ecologist with the survey group.

[Brian Thomas]

Ok, first it was the Zebra Mussels and the Gobies brought to us from those generous Europeans and their ballast pumping into the lakes that has messed the food chain and so on for the Great Lakes and inland lakes. Now we have to deal with some idiot having to bring another fish from overseas to eat to pollute our waters. Isnt there enough fish in the United States that is NATIVE to eat? The old custom is to buy 2 of these Asian carp, release one and eat the other. I think its time we start making these people responsible for the mess they are making of our fisheries!

[JVolpe29]

Last month Dan Rather (CBS) NEWS Featured a story on these fish, it showed a guide, a reporter and a cameraman on the mississippi river, as soon as they fired up the outboard and took off the fish were jumping 7 feet out of the water all arounfd the boat , fish were landing in the boat, they were driving around the lake with nets actually catching the fish in mid air, the camera man was actually whacked with a carp, the guide said that after a commercial fisherman failed to return to the docks they searched for him and found him unconcious in his boat whacked in the temple by a carp, i guess the propeller causes the fish to panic and go airborne, lamprey eels , zebras, goby's now jap carp...just kill them like the rest of the invaders .....life goes on

[Bob from Detroit]

Sounds like a new shotgun sport!

Can you visualize what that would look like.

[pieter_dehaseth]

As they say, people are smart enough to creat problems that they are not smart enough to solve. This is pretty bad. I have no confidence in the barrier they are putting up in Chicago. We better do some walleye fishing while the fishing in Lake Erie is still good.
I don't know whether anybody remembers the movie "War of the Worlds". The invading aliens got the upper hand, but were finally subdued by earthly microbes. Similarly I think the only effective defense will be biological. I hope researchers will be able to find a chemical, bacterium or virus that selectively attacks these monster fish. If not, we all better get marlin reels and gear up to fish for them.
gettum

[Walleye Express]

Pieter_dehaseth.
I'm with ya on the Marlin Reels man. But how does one put a plankton on a hook? :-)I really can't fathom an answer to this new foreign transplant delemma, but remeber the gloom and doom the Zebra Mussel started. They will destroy in a short time the bottom of the food chain. They will plug every water intake on all the Great Lakes. Nothing will eat them and they will replace all other bottom dwelling hard shell species. Well, they cleaned up every Great Lake. That is, made the water clear. This in itself, has or can be construde as good or bad by different groups, depending on who one talks to. Seems my water supply at my house is also still in good working order. And I rutinely catch perch, white bass, sheepsheads, catfish and yes, even walleyes that have zebras in their stomachs. I'm not trying to make light of this serious subject. I to, do not want anymore trash-fish in the Great Lakes ecosystem. And one day I'm afraid we will go to far. But I could list at least 20 fish species that are not indigenous to the Great Lakes that we either planted outselves or has snuck in via Bildge water. Each, in its own way effects the food chain, pro or con. God grant this stupidity stops.

[skljohnson]

A couple buddies and myself were fishing the mouth of the Big Sioux River and Missouri River here in Sioux City this September. We had two fish almost jump in the boat. One jumped across the front of the boat and another bounced off the gas can in the back. They most likely will never be able to get past the Dams up river, but there are some good spots to fish in other areas below Gavins Point Dam. Any sport fishing below the Dam will be ruined by these Asian Carp. It's a shame to see no aggressive action being taken to rid our waters of such a nusiance fish. Just wanted to comment that they are in the Missouri, as matter of fact, we caught a 27lber last winter...on a jig and a minnow.

[Walleye Wally]

>Sounds like a new shotgun sport!
>
>Can you visualize what that would look like.


I'm with you Bob!!!!!!!! Load up the shotgun and fire up the outboard. We can rid the waterways of this nuisance fish and have a ball doing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[River Rat]

Just remember, these escaped from the catfish farms in Arkansas and Mississippi. Now they want to bring a new species-the black carp. The next time you buy pond raised catfish, you are supporting the possible destruction of your sport. However, "Sporting Carp" does sound intriguing.
I seriously doubt that the dams will stop their spread. They have gotten though at least seven on the Miss. Of course, these are for navigation. If yours don't have locks, it might slow them down. But as long as there are 5 gallon buckets, fish will get moved around.

[JVolpe29]

The fish definatly stay airborne long enough to fill with bird shot, they have some hang time !! ironically when i watched it on the news shotgunning was the first thing that came to mind !!

[eyewitness]

Anyone know of any links showing these things airborne? I'd love to see it...