Asian Carp in Lake Michigan!

I have a couple of questons to think about.
Do Asian Carp eat Zebra mussels? Maybe that is a good thing.
Do humans eat Asian Carp? This might be a sustainable food source and create jobs.
 
Scott

I just read where they are going to rename the Asian Carp.
Hence forth it will be called Silverside Fish
Ala Phil Vettel in the Chicago Tribune Food Section!
Dan
 
After seeing the videos of the Asian Carp jumping in boat wakes. I'm glad we have a hard top. Now, the dinghy rides might be really interesting. I imagine the old football helmets might be useful on running on plane.
 
Maybe you could pull up to the DNR's dock, throw the carp on it and demand a fee.

"Ok guys there were 6 of your fish on my boat. That'll be $30 per fish per boat ride. You owe me $180. Oh, and this one is over 25lbs and I forgot to add the $20 surcharge for that. Make it $200 ".

Do all of the fish do the jumping thing? Maybe all the boaters should rig up a bimini frame type that holds a large rectangular net across the bow. As you cruise along, you catch them in the net. If they all jump, maybe you guys could catch them all. Offer beer as a prize to whoever catches the last one.
 
The solution to the Asian Carp proplem while be having Charlie Trotter's putting it on his menu. Then it will be chic to dine on Carp and people won't mind having them around so much!:smt043
 
Start exporting them to Haiti and maybe they would be over fished but then the IDNR wound stop fishing and say now they are protected like the rare Canadian Geese:smt101

"Question" do people that work in Government have to get a lobotomy first?:huh:
 
Here's a couple of recent articles about what Senator Dick Durbin and others are attempting to do to address the problem. Even Obama is going to weigh in on the issue this month.

One point made in both articles is if the Obrien Lock is closed to Lake Michigan, 14,000 homes will be flooded. Two other points of economic impacts would be to the $7 Billion Great Lakes Commercial Fishing industry and the 7,000,000 tons of barge cargo that move annually on the Illinois Waterway to or from Lake Michigan.

http://www.durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=321447

http://www.katu.com/outdoors/fishhunt/82841857.html
 
Here's the latest on Asian Carp battle:

Poison dumped into Illinois river in latest battle against Asian carp

May 21, 2010 By Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune
The Little Calumet River became the latest battleground against Asian carp Thursday as work crews dumped barrels of a deadly fish toxin in a desperate attempt to locate the elusive invasive species in Chicago's waterways.


"If there are Asian carp here we should get confirmation of that this week," John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said during a morning news conference along the canal.
Officials targeted this two-mile stretch of the Calumet-Sag Channel, about seven miles west of Lake Michigan, because numerous DNA samples collected here have indicated the presence of Asian carp. But no one has yet seen an Asian carp, alive or dead, making this an important staging area to not only test the validity of the DNA research, but also to gauge how imminent a threat the carp are to the Great Lakes.

Biologists dumped about 2,000 gallons of the organic fish poison Rotenone into the channel Thursday and are expected to search for Asian carp over the next several days as dead fish float to the surface. The federal government is picking up the estimated $1.5 million price tag for the mission, which likely will kill thousands of fish and shut down a vital shipping corridor for about a week.
The steep costs, both economically and environmentally, underscore the importance of locating Asian carp if they are indeed on Lake Michigan's doorstep, said Charlie Wooley, the Midwest deputy director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"This is as good as an effort as we could possibly come up with," Wooley said. "If we don't find any Asian carp through this sampling I can assure you we've given it our best shot."
The recovery of even one Asian carp this close to Lake Michigan could have far-reaching implications for the legal and political fight around this issue. It would surely spark new calls to permanently close Chicago-area locks to seal off the most direct route for the fish into the Great Lakes.
It would also raise serious questions about the effectiveness of the underwater electric barriers near Romeoville, Ill., and could even trigger a new round of lawsuits and calls for action in Washington, D.C.

If biologists don't find a single Asian carp -- after failing to locate one during weeks of netting and electrofishing in the same area this year -- it would raise further questions about the DNA science already under scrutiny. It would also bolster claims by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corps of Engineers and others that say methods to control the fish's movement are working.
Wooley said if no Asian carp surface this week it should effectively shift the entire battle 40 miles downriver to behind the electric barriers, where officials are working on new attack plans to eradicate them.
"It's our hope they come up empty here so we can move this (battle) down where it belongs," Wooley said.


(c) 2010, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
 
Great so since I boat downstream - Should I stay out of the water until the poison goes away?
 
skolbe said:
Great so since I boat downstream - Should I stay out of the water until the poison goes away?
Click to expand...

Unless you have gills, the poison won't have any impact.:grin:
 
320Bob said:
Unless you have gills, the poison won't have any impact.:grin:
Click to expand...

I have no idea why that reminded me of this song...which I haven't heard in 25 years...but sure enough it was on YouTube just as I remembered it...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l1GvDWtccI[/youtube]
 
I think the real issue is to get to the shipping industry to stop the release of ballast water in fresh water. If the coast guard can crack down on this maybe in th future we can stop the next infestation of some new invader. If the carp are in Lake Michigan im sure they will soon get to Lake Erie to my area sooner than later. Just like the goby and the zebra Mussel after they have been introduced in the water they could not stop them.
 
The news report this AM was the fish killed produced 100,000 pounds of fish with no trace of the asian carp.
 
sbw1
Heard the same thing is morning.
Spoke with a couple of the Conservation Cops and boy were they relived too!
They are going to do the same thing this fall on the Sanitry Canal coming out of Chicago.
Dan
 
Hope it continues. I heard they are going to focus future kills on the side of the electric fence opposite (away from) the big lake.
 
sbw1 said:
The news report this AM was the fish killed produced 100,000 pounds of fish with no trace of the asian carp.
Click to expand...

I never bought the findings by the so called expert from Notre Dame claiming Carp DNA indicated Asian Carp presence. They killed 200,000 lbs. of fish behind the Lockport Dam and found 1 carp. My unscientific theory is some Carp crap took a ride on a barge or boat and fell off upstream of barrier and that is what the "expert" found. The potential threat in the future still exists, but for the time being the sky is not falling as the news and some politicians have maintained.
 
My BIL and nephew were at Starved Rock State Park on the IL river on Sunday. They caught 2 asian carp in not a lot of time.
 
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