Outdoor News broke the story last week of the silver carp turning up in a seine net on Pool 6 of the Mississippi near Winona. (The river-bottom country where this scribe learned to hunt and fish.) Commercial fisherman Tim Adams and his crew turned up a hat trick of Asian carp in the same net – a bighead, silver, and…
Seemingly forgotten amidst all the recent hub-bub over the state's deer herd and deer culling programs is the fact that Asian carp remain a threat to Illinois waters. And apparently so do common carp. Hennepin and Hopper Lakes have been closed to anglers in a "renewed effort to remove invasive common carp from the lakes," The Wetlands Initiative and DNR…
A commercial fisherman has caught a silver carp – the jumping variety – in the Mississippi River’s Pool 6 near Winona
By now, Outdoor News readers know about the imminent threat that Asian carp (including silver, bighead and black carp) pose to the waters of our fine state. Silently and steadily, they are migrating up the Mississippi River. If established here, they would forever change the ecology and human uses of many of our water resources.
A new report commissioned by a pair of conservation organizations may help pressure the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move swiftly to turn back the calendar to the 1900s.
Bismarck, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota wildlife officials say an Asian carp species famous for leaping out of the water when startled by boat motors has been caught on the James River. State Game and Fish spokesman Lynn Schlueter says the silver carp was caught near LaMoure, in southeast North Dakota. He says the wildlife officials are disappointed but not…
Spirit Lake, Iowa (AP) – State environmental officials say invasive carp species have been found in a Clay County lake. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources say bighead carp and silver carp were found in Elk Lake by commercial fisherman hired to remove rough fish, such as common carp, from the northern Iowa lake. Officials with the DNR say the…
CHICAGO (AP) – Minced Asian carp tacos? How about spaghetti with carp sauce? Illinois officials hope serving the invasive species on a plate is the creative solution to two big problems: controlling the plankton-gobbling carp from entering the Great Lakes and record numbers of people facing hunger. But the idea has major obstacles, mainly overcoming people's nose-crinkling response to eating…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois officials hope they can make progress on two different problems by feeding Asian carp to hungry families. The invasive species of fish has been added to the state’s “Target Hunger Now!” program, which encourages hunters and fishermen to donate food to the needy. The state plans to promote Asian carp as a tasty food later…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Mark Dayton outlined an urgent case Monday for stopping invasive Asian carp from spreading widely in Minnesota’s waters, convening a summit where he said the state will need help from Congress and where officials discussed whether a Mississippi River lock and dam in Minneapolis should be permanently closed. At the meeting billed as a…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Federal officials promised Friday to improve two crucial weapons in the fight to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes: an electric fish barrier near Chicago and an early-warning system that detects carp DNA in waterways. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a report by four independent scientists who analyzed the “environmental DNA”…
After a five-day search, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries staff did not capture any Asian carp in the St. Croix River, but efforts to locate them continue this week.Last week, DNR fisheries biologists used trawling techniques and electro-shock fishing methods to sample fish populations in two stretches of river. On Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, crews sampled sections…
More news of asian carp spreading, further into Wisconsin waters… MADISON, WI – An angler’s catch of a bighead carp in the Lower Wisconsin River and traces of silver carp DNA — the carp known for its jumping behavior — in the St. Croix River late last month have state officials calling on the federal government to direct funding and…
CHICAGO (AP) – Federal officials say they will begin intensive monitoring of a waterway near Lake Michigan next week after genetic material from the invasive Asian carp showed up in three rounds of genetic testing. Crews will conduct electrofishing – using electric jolts to stun fish – sweep nets and additional sampling in Lake Calumet near Chicago during a four-day…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – No additional study is necessary to prove that separating the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems is the only way to prevent invasive species such as Asian carp from migrating between them and doing serious ecological and economic harm, a team of scientists said Thursday. In a newly released paper, the scientists said opponents…
Traverse City, Mich. (AP) – Federal and state officials outlined a series of projects on May 23 to pinpoint how far Asian carp have advanced toward the Great Lakes and remove as many as possible from a Chicago waterway that offers the nuisance fish a direct path to Lake Michigan. The $7 million initiative calls for continued use of electrofishing,…
106-pound fish was never supposed to swim free in Missouri Gene Swope, Excelsior Springs, and his grandsons will always remember April 23, 2011, as the day they set a Missouri State fishing record. Fisheries Programs Specialist Andrew Branson shares their excitement, but he has mixed emotions about the monster fish that earned them a place in the record book. Swope…
The Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday eliminated funding for the rehabilitation of the Coon Rapids dam on the Mississippi River, which is seen as a crucial barrier to stop the spread of invasive Asian carp. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials say the dam is currently the best option for stopping the northward spread of Asian carp…
Berrien Springs, Mich. (AP) – Officials with a southwestern Michigan village support the idea of closing a fish ladder on the St. Joseph River because of the threat from Asian carp. The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph reports the Berrien Springs Village Council this week passed a resolution in support of “all efforts” to stop bighead and silver carp that have migrated…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has fired up a new electric fish barrier on a Chicago-area waterway linking the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, the latest bid to protect the lakes from an Asian carp onslaught that could harm native species. The $19 million device is slightly upstream from two others on the…
Pine Bluff, Ark. – Asian carp have been migrating northward in the Mississippi River and its tributaries for several years after escaping from southern U.S. fish farms and sewage lagoons during mid-1990s flooding.That oft-used statement, or a derivation thereof, has drawn the ire of a southern university official on more than one occasion. It’s become an apparent statement of fact,…
Where did they come from and why? And how did they become what some now are calling the Great Lakes’ greatest threat? Here’s a thumbnail sketch of each of the four species of invasive Asian carps, each a distant relative to the common carp. Their native range Bighead carp: According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the bighead carp…
CHICAGO (AP) – The electric barrier designed to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes may need more voltage to stop the smallest of the invading fish, according to a report issued Friday by the Army Corps of Engineers. Small carp won’t be stopped by the current voltage used at the barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal,…
No traces of Asian carp DNA have been found in water samples collected from major Milwaukee waterways, according to the University of Notre Dame researchers who did the sampling. The researchers notified the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of the results in a letter last week. The DNR provided boats and boat operators to help collect the water samples from…
Akron, Ohio – A new study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pinpoints nine Ohio waterways where Asian carp could move between the Mississippi (Ohio) River and Great Lakes watersheds. One of those locations – Long Lake on the Ohio-Erie Canal in Summit County – is number two on the Corps’ list of places posing the greatest risk. The…
Tests conducted this fall have not shown the presence of environmental DNA (eDNA) for either bighead or silver carp in Michigan waters, according to results received by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment earlier this month. From Sept. 15 to Oct. 5, 2010, researchers from the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy collected 74 water samples…
