Asian Carp: Another Stream Invasion

[Mark]

Yesterday was a sad day for me. The water I grew up fishing was the lower Saline near St. Marys, MO, (spelled St. Mary on your map, but always St. Marys to locals) separating St. Marys from Kaskaskia, IL. The slough, as we call it, is actually the old Mississippi river channel before the river changed in the late 1880s. I hadn't fished the slough in 3-4 years, and do remember seeing a few Asian carp flying, but yesterday was heartbreaking. From the moment we launched, the Asian carp were flying. Hundreds upon hundreds of flying fish. They have totally taken over this stretch of water. We ended up with about 20 fish in the boat and kept paddles in our hands to take a whack at them as they flew over the boat.

I've watched and read of the Asian carp taking over streams in MO with interest and concern, but the invasion finally hit home yesterday as I fear the fishing stream of my childhood is now destroyed for eternity. Certainly made me sad and think of how man (someone had to release the first Asian carp)is continually destroying the delicate balance of nature.

The Asian carp has to be bad for other fish and the entire ecosystem of the stream. Is there evidence out there on the depletion of native species due to the invasion of the Asian carp?

[Al Agnew]

Plenty of evidence, in waters like the lower Saline. These carp are plankton feeders, so they don't compete directly with most of the more sought after game fish species like bass and catfish, but a lot of the baitfish that the game fish feed upon, like shad, are filter feeders like the carp and cannot compete with them. So their presence in such a massive biomass reduces the biomass of the fish the gamefish eat. They grow too quickly for the young to replace the shad and other baitfish as a food source.

Since they apparently require a lot of plankton and other microorganisms in the water, they may not do well in the clear Ozark streams, but they have moved into many of the direct Mississippi and Missouri tributaries. It's possible the limitations of the food supply in these streams will keep them from becoming the problem they are in more murky and fertile streams, but that's far from a sure thing.

[Greasy B]

I can sympathize with the citizens of the great lakes over the inevitable invasion of Asian's. Apparently big business has more pull than tourism and angling when it comes to closing the shipping canal that will be the path of invasion. Are the great lakes doomed to the same fate? Looks like they are.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think there is a partial solution and one of the things that the government could certainly attack under mitigation for allowing them in the country to begin with. Canned fish is both nutritious and tasty and there is no reason these fish couldn't be sold in outlets and distributed to the needy. All the government would need to do is introduce the seed money to get the ball rolling.

I would imagine there would be no shortage of people who would like to spend their work day on the water.

[rps]

I saw a you tube that demonstrated filleting the flying carp. Evidently more flesh/less bones than standard carp and reputedly tasty. I see an industry in the making. After all tilapia really isn't very good and yet it sells well. I guess the only problem would be the fact that netting is the only efficient harvest method.

[fishinwrench]

The Osage river below Bagnell is in jeopardy for sure. You'd think that depletion of the MDC's beloved spoonbill would have them on a full-out crusade to control asian carp, but it seems that hands have been thrown in the air and the river surrendered to them.

[Greasy B]

Don't we have a factory that manufactures Spoonbills. A gift from those who built Kaysinger Reservoir.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Don't we have a factory that manufactures Spoonbills. I gift from those who built Kaysinger Reservoir.

They still have to eat to grow.

[fishinwrench]

In an attempt to think happy thoughts....Maybe the Asians will eat themselves out of house/home (to a degree), and a healthy balance will someday result. Maybe our waters are too plankton rich at the present time. Is that s possibility?

[Mart]

I was fishing in a friend's 1 acre pond outside Edwardsville, IL, this summer and my friend snag hooked a monster. We brought it in after a long fight (on 12 lb test line). It was a 47 lb Asian Carp that my friend's dad introduced a couple years earlier to "control the weeds". I think it weighed a couple of pounds when he stocked it. 47 lb monster in a 1 acre pond! Think that was messing up the ecosystem? It is fertilizer now. Can you imagine how quick they grow in a large habitat like a MO lake?

RPS, someone else told me they were good eating. Big, ugly, smelly fish (no walleye). Not sure I would have much of an appetite for it.