The dreaded Asian carp, the flying fish boaters and fisherman love to hate. A general search for Asian carp turns up more hilarious YouTube videos than you can probably watch in your lifetime. What’s not funny? The fact that these carp are an invasive species and are slowly taking over the waters that they live in.
There are four varieties of Asian carp – silver carp, grass carp, bighead carp, and black carp; all of which are native to the waters of Russia, Vietnam, and China. These carp were originally imported into the United States by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in 1963. The carp were to be used to control aquatic weeds. The carp eat by sucking plants and plankton off of the bottom of the riverbeds. Bighead carp can grow to the largest size reaching up to over four feet in length are weigh over eighty pounds. Typically these fish can eat up to 40 percent of their body weight in a single day (Cauchon). …show more content…
In 1980, after some devastating rainfall and sub sequential flooding, the carp found their way into the rivers and streams. The Asian carp have found a way to move up both the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers by eating the plankton and plant life. These carp reproduce at a rapid rate further compounding the problem (Nelson).
The largest fear at the time was that the carp would swim far enough north and make it into the waters of the Great Lakes. In 2002 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned on a large electrical fence that they had constructed with the permission on the U.S. Congress (Stokstad). The hopes was the carp would be deterred by the electrical current and would not pass though the waters there or the barrier. The barrier was constructed about twenty-five miles south of Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal
There are four varieties of Asian carp – silver carp, grass carp, bighead carp, and black carp; all of which are native to the waters of Russia, Vietnam, and China. These carp were originally imported into the United States by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in 1963. The carp were to be used to control aquatic weeds. The carp eat by sucking plants and plankton off of the bottom of the riverbeds. Bighead carp can grow to the largest size reaching up to over four feet in length are weigh over eighty pounds. Typically these fish can eat up to 40 percent of their body weight in a single day (Cauchon). …show more content…
In 1980, after some devastating rainfall and sub sequential flooding, the carp found their way into the rivers and streams. The Asian carp have found a way to move up both the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers by eating the plankton and plant life. These carp reproduce at a rapid rate further compounding the problem (Nelson).
The largest fear at the time was that the carp would swim far enough north and make it into the waters of the Great Lakes. In 2002 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned on a large electrical fence that they had constructed with the permission on the U.S. Congress (Stokstad). The hopes was the carp would be deterred by the electrical current and would not pass though the waters there or the barrier. The barrier was constructed about twenty-five miles south of Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal