Posted on 04/05/2013 9:03:43 PM PDT by haffast
Ever since Asian carp were accidentally introduced into U.S. rivers in the 1970s, the invasive fish have been hungrily making their way to the Great Lakes, causing residents of the watershed to dread the arrival of carp in delicate Lake ecosystems, and their potential impacts on the 7 billion dollar fishing industry that represents a major economic driver for the region.
Now, a new study suggests that Asian carp have breached southern Lake Michigan, although they have not yet arrived in numbers great enough to devastate native ecosystems.
Scientists at Notre Dame University, Southern Michigan University, and The Nature Conservancy spent two years searching for Asian carp by examining genetic material in the Lake and attempting to match DNA samples to two particularly damaging species of Asian carp, silver and bighead carp.
Out of 2,800 water samples, they found 58 positive links to bighead and silver carp in the Chicago Area Waterway System, which flows directly into Lake Michigan, along with six in western Lake Erie.
Questions remain about how many carp are already in the ecosystem—and how long it will take until the fish begin showing up in numbers large enough to cause serious harm.
“The most plausible explanation is still that there are some carp out there,” lead author Christopher Jerde of the University of Notre Dame told the AP. “We can be cautiously optimistic…that we’re not at the point where they’ll start reproducing, spreading further and doing serious damage.”
snip
“Our river fisheries are important but not valued in the billions of dollars,” Chapman told TakePart. “Whereas the Great Lakes fisheries are hugely economically important. If you cause any perturbations in fisheries like Lake Eerie’s walleye and yellow perch fisheries, that could be hugely problematic.”
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee
"As we begin 2013, I think it's important to note that the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) made significant progress in 2012 along a number of fronts in our efforts to prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. For example, the electrical dispersal barriers are now operating at optimal parameters; no new live Asian carp have been found in the CAWS above the electric dispersal barriers, with over 40,000 hours of netting, electrofishing, and keen observation by experienced fisheries biologists; and we're making advances on efforts to identify technologies to control or eradicate Asian carp."
http://asiancarp.us/
Zebra mussel, that, I don't have a recipe for.
/johnny
They cleaned up Lake Erie by filtering its foul waters and they have a native species ... the Lakes Sheephead ... that loves them so much they have multiplied enough to restart a commercial fishery for them in the lake. Other species eat them, too. But the sheephead LOVES'em and is pretty tasty itself.
Running that Helen Thomas photo was uncalled for on a Zebra Mussel thread.
BTW, I heard that zebra mussels themselves are edible by humans, in contrast ... O never mind.
****Ever since Asian carp were accidentally introduced into U.S. rivers in the 1970s, the invasive fish****
Invasive fish? If I remember correctly the European carp was introduced in the 1800s by the US government.
The Asian grass carp was introduced on purpose in the 1970s to clean up waterways and ponds clogged with moss.
I wonder how well that carp will do once those big Northern Pikes get at them. Not many Pikes in the rivers, but plenty in the lakes if I recall correctly.
Thats true. I know a man who paid top $$s for two of them to clean out his 'decorative' pond. It was a pretty fancy affair with lights and landscaping that became overgrown with grasses. The fish cleaned it up in one summer and kept it (returned it) to its intended beauty.
He brought them inside each winter to keep them from freezing up.
There is a canal within walking distance of my house and I sometimes fish for them there. They bite readily on white bread pinched onto a number 6 hook. They get huge and put up a great fight. I pull them up out of the canal, step on them so I can retrieve the hook, then kick them back in. I would eat them except that they are so disgusting and they grow a coating of slime that really stinks. That's why I handle them the way I do.
This guy caught a good one:
Good control tactic is eating them. I hear they are quite good when smoked . . .
When I was a kid it was illegal to throw any carp back into Lake Michigan because they ate bass eggs...opposite of catch and release....catch and toss to the raccoons. Not sure if they still have that law.
Weird.
Is that ‘shopped or do those fish have people teeth?
My personal opinion is we should be allowed to shoot them out of boats with shotguns.
That’s a Saltwater Sheep’s-head. That one is a female from the color. They’re supposed to be tasty....some claim they taste like lobster, although I don’t.
“Southern Michigan University”
No such thing. Although this is the nickname of the penitentiary in Jackson.
>> I knew about Asian carp. My wife carps all the time, but she’s not Asian.
But does she comprain or the time?
No such place that I know of in the USA.
There is a Notre Dame de Namur University in Silicon Valley. There is a Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore. There is one in Lebanon. And another in Mindanao.
But there is a University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
I always worry about articles that start of with a mistake in the first few sentences. Kind of like calling the University of Texas by the name 'Texas University.'
How about "uninvited lake inhabitant?"
Regards,
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