{"id":201366,"date":"2020-02-12T09:18:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T06:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/asian-carp-roundup-in-kentucky-opens-new-front-in-battle\/"},"modified":"2020-02-12T09:18:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T06:18:32","slug":"asian-carp-roundup-in-kentucky-opens-new-front-in-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/asian-carp-roundup-in-kentucky-opens-new-front-in-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian carp roundup in Kentucky opens new front in battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] \n<\/p>\n
\n
GOLDEN POND, Ky. (AP) \u2014 Like a slow-motion, underwater cattle drive, wildlife officials in a half-dozen aluminum boats used pulses of electricity and sound on a recent gray morning to herd schools of Asian carp toward 1,000-foot-long (305 meters) nets.<\/p>\n
The ongoing roundup on wind-rippled Kentucky Lake opens a new front in a 15-year battle to halt the advance of the invasive carp, which threaten to upend aquatic ecosystems, starve out native fish and wipe out endangered mussel and snail populations along the Mississippi River and dozens of tributaries.<\/p>\n
State and federal agencies together have spent roughly $607 million to stop them since 2004, according to data compiled by The Associated Press. Projects in the works are expected to push the price tag to about $1.5 billion over the next decade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s more than five times the amount predicted in 2007 when a national carp management plan was crafted, and no end is in sight. Programs aim to reduce established populations and prevent further spreading, but wildlife officials concede they may never be able to eradicate the prolific fish.<\/p>\n
Much of the focus has been on limiting their northerly migration and keeping them out of the Great Lakes, where experts say they could devastate a $7 billion fishing industry. That effort features an underwater electric barrier near Chicago, water sampling for carp DNA, subsidies for commercial fishers and experiments with a mass roundup-type harvest.<\/p>\n
It has been largely successful, although the lakes remain vulnerable and grass carp \u2014 one of the Asian varieties \u2014 have been spotted in Lakes Erie, Ontario and Michigan.<\/p>\n
Less money and attention have been paid to the carp\u2019s virtually unchecked spread east and west into the Missouri and Ohio rivers, among others.<\/p>\n
Asian carp were imported to the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s as an eco-friendly alternative to poisons for ridding southern fish farms and sewage lagoons of algae, weeds and parasites. They escaped through flooding, deliberate stocking and other means.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a dumb idea,\u201d said Joel Brammeier, president of the advocacy group Alliance for the Great Lakes. \u201cEven back then, biologists understood the risks of bringing live, non-native animals into the country. It should never have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Conover, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who oversaw development of the national Asian carp strategy, realized how abundant they were becoming in the Mississippi River as he studied native paddlefish in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first there were no carp, then we were catching a few carp here and there, then eventually we were filling the nets with carp and no paddlefish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The catchall term \u201cAsian carp\u201d refers to four different invasive species \u2014 bighead, black, grass and silver carp.<\/p>\n
Sport anglers are feeling their impacts. Scientists reported that carp in the upper Mississippi are out-competing prized native fish such as yellow perch and bluegill. And silver carp hurtle from the water like missiles when startled by boat motors. Collisions have broken noses, jaws and ribs.<\/p>\n
“That has hurt the tourism industry,\u201d said Ron Brooks, Kentucky\u2019s aquatic nuisance species program director.<\/p>\n
There are no precise estimates of Asian carp populations in U.S. waters, but there are believed to be millions. At times, they’ve totaled up to 90% of all fish populations on some backwaters of the Mississippi River. On two large reservoirs in Kentucky last year, commercial fishermen brought in 6 million pounds (2.7 million kilograms) of Asian carp.<\/p>\n
Asian carp are established in much of the central U.S. They grow quickly and reproduce abundantly; females lay up to 5 million eggs at a time. Silver carp mature in three to four years and can grow to about 60 pounds (27 kilograms). Bighead, the largest, can reach 110 pounds (50 kilograms).<\/p>\n
Grass carp \u2014 the only Asian carp species that can still be legally imported for weed control \u2014 have been found as far west as Utah, and in Florida and New York.<\/p>\n
Early attempts to rein in Asian carp were slow going.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years we couldn\u2019t even catch them,\u201d said Frank Fiss, fisheries chief of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. \u201cWe had to adapt our gear to get the right gill nets, the right electroshocks. There was a steep learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some fish farmers didn\u2019t want the carp banned. States were slow to act. One control method, commercial fishing, hit a snag when processors realized that while the carp are a prized food in China, buyers there like them fresh, not frozen.<\/p>\n