More Asian Carp Research In Missouri

[Tim Smith]

From the AFS webfeed:

Minneapolis Star Tribune article:

A federal research fish biologist specializing in Asian carp, Duane Chapman
(AFS member, '80) is in the Twin Cities this week attending the American
Fisheries Society gathering in St. Paul.

Chapman works for the U.S. Geological Survey in Columbia, Mo., and is at the
forefront of the nation's fight against Asian carp. He and other federal
scientists, as well as those from various states and academia, are
attempting to find the Achilles' heel of bighead, silver and other, similar
evil critters.

"Asian carp are not magical,'' Chapman said. "These fish can be controlled.
But it won't be easy. And there likely will be ecological and economic
consequences to controlling them, when we figure out how to do it.''

In an attempt to understand which types of rivers are suitable for Asian
carp spawning, Chapman and his colleagues raise these fish in their Missouri
laboratory.

"In the U.S., Asian carp live mostly in rivers,'' he said, "but they
actually prefer lakes when they're not spawning.''

Silver, bighead, grass and black carp generally require highly turbulent
water for spawning.

"Turbulent waters are needed because if the eggs sink to the bottom, they
can die,'' Chapman said. He and other USGS scientists are studying which
U.S. rivers not already infested might be vulnerable to carp expansion.

"We're also trying to develop [chemicals] that will be toxic only to Asian
carp,'' he said.

Because Asian carp are very long-lived, they can experience back-to-back
poor spawning years and still multiply their numbers.

"We'd like to be able to control their big year classes of reproduction,''
Chapman said. "We have some ideas how to do that. But we need to go out and
test them.''

Asian carp seem particularly vulnerable when they are young and measure only
between 1 and 10 centimeters long.

"That's a bottleneck for these fish, most years,'' Chapman said.

So attacking them at that early life juncture might be best. Is eradication
of Asian carp possible in the U.S.?

Perhaps not, Chapman said.

Restricting their expansion might be the best we can hope for, because
controlling them once their populations are established will "take a long
time and a lot of willpower.

"And it won't be free.''

[fishinwrench]

Love the closing statement. LOL

[Jerry Rapp]

more research equals more funding for their "research". Job security, and I really seriously doubt there is a solution. These are the same folks who want to build multi million dollar fish passages at locks and dam, when at least 30% of the time the dam gates are out of the water due to high flows.

[Mitch f]

At least someone is coming up with ideas, and thats a good thing.

[Outside Bend]

I would much rather see gov't spend money researching the cheapest, most effective ways of combating these species. It seems more responsible than attacking the problem without any information, just playing roulette and seeing what happens.

And while research may seem expensive, there's a cost to doing nothing, too. These invasive carp alter recreational and sport fisheries, cause personal injury and property damage to boats and nets, they alter tourism and recreational boating activities. Dealing with the issue now may be smarter and cheaper than kicking the can down the road, letting them breed indiscriminately and seeing how that turns out.

[Tim Smith]

more research equals more funding for their "research".

Since you pretty much have all the answers, Jerry, I can imagine that really chaps your butt, watching the government spending money to carefully collect data when all everyone has to do is come ask you.

Man.

I feel for you dude. I really do.