Carp Attack: Fight Against Invasive Fish Heads South
States ask for millions in federal funding to protect fishing tourism from species plaguing Midwest for years
Fishermen look over about 2,000 pounds of fish—most of it Asian carp—caught in Kentucky Lake, a reservoir on the Tennessee River now teeming with the invasive species.
By
Cameron McWhirter | Photographs by William DeShazer for The Wall Street Journal
April 19, 2019 5:30 a.m. ET
In Kentucky Lake, a giant reservoir on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, silvery Asian carp the size of healthy piglets flop out of the water, sometimes hitting boats.
They are everywhere—and creating an economic problem.
The invasive fish are scaring away tourists and threatening recreational fishing businesses, since most anglers seek crappies and bass, not Asian carp.
Southern states are now ramping up efforts to control the problem—and some officials worry they may be too late. For years, Midwestern states and the federal government have spent millions of dollars on research, electric barriers and other methods to keep Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes and hurting its ecology and $7 billion annual fishing industry.
The affected Southern states are pushing for $12 million in federal funding to control the spread of carp, a big increase from the $600,000 they secured this fiscal year. Anglers spend about $2.9 billion annually in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, the American Sportfishing Association estimates.
“There’s a huge potential for economic impact,” said Nick Nichols, Alabama’s chief of fisheries.
Scale Factor
Over the past five years, the number of invasive Asian carp recorded in inland U.S. waters has more than doubled compared with the five-year period a decade earlier, driven largely by the fish’s expansion into mid-South.
Number of Asian carp found in U.S. watersheds
26-50
2-5
1
More
than 50
6-25
2004-2008
2014-2018
Kentucky Lake
Source: USGS
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What should governments do about invasive species and plants? Join the conversation below.
Collectively known as Asian carp, four species of the fish were brought to the South from China and other parts of Asia in the 1960s and ’70s to help clean wastewater ponds. Largely through flooding, they escaped into rivers and lakes, quickly establishing burgeoning populations in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and in many connecting rivers and lakes.
The fish, often weighing 15 or 20 pounds and sometimes more, slam into hulls and leap into boats, sometimes striking people. They reproduce year-round, with their spawn quickly growing too large for potential predators. They eat up much of the plankton, upsetting the food chain and hurting popular fish species. Businesses have tried to get Americans to start eating carp, so far with little success.
Steve McCadams, a professional hunting and fishing guide on Kentucky Lake, catches a crappie from his boat.
Steve McCadams, a fishing guide on Kentucky Lake for 42 years, said Americans see carp as “trash fish,” even though he says a cooked carp doesn’t taste bad.
“The word ‘carp’ is hard for the public to overcome,” he said.
On the lake—one of the largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi, created in the 1940s by damming the Tennessee River—fishers wield bows and arrows to kill as many carp as they can. Commercial fishers deploy huge nets to catch the invaders en masse. Because carp eat plankton, they can’t be caught with baited hooks.
David Alvey, 37, who has lived and fished on the 160,000-acre lake his whole life, said small businesses have visits from out-of-towners decline as the carp have spread.
“You’ll hear them hit the bottom of your boat all the time,” he said. “It’s always a concern that one of them is going to fly up and hit some kid on your boat.”
Joe Hall, an employee at Hart’s Fish Market in Buchanan, Tenn., holds up two Asian carp. The fish, which typically weigh 15 or 20 pounds, haven’t been a culinary hit in the U.S.
To control the carp, state officials are seeking choke points like dams, locks or narrows where they can build electric or sound barriers to scare away the fish, since carp are sensitive to sound. They also are subsidizing commercial fishing ventures and sponsoring recreational tournaments focused just on carp.
The efforts will cost millions annually, said Frank Fiss, Tennessee’s chief of fisheries, who added that the carp invasion has overwhelmed state resources and is “out of control from a strategy standpoint. I’m barely keeping my head above water with what’s happening.”
Exporting Asian Carp Back to Their Homeland
The infestation of Asian carp in the Mississippi River has become a big problem. But some entrepreneurs have figured out a solution: export them back to Asia. WSJ's Arian Campo-Flores reports. Photo:Joe Buglewicz for The Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with federal and state agencies and academics, are working to develop a sound and bubble barrier to scare away carp near the Lake Barkley dam on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Similar barriers are needed across the region, Mr. Fiss said.
Scientists are trying to better understand how Asian carp reproduce to figure out ways to limit their populations, said Mike Weimer, a senior fish biologist with the USFWS. Complete eradication is unlikely, he said.
Travis McLeese, executive director of the chamber of commerce for Tennessee’s Henry County, home to about 32,000 people bordering Kentucky Lake, applauds the efforts but has his worries.
“All that takes time, and with tourism, time is something we don’t have,” he said. “A fisherman will go somewhere else and not come back.
States ask for millions in federal funding to protect fishing tourism from species plaguing Midwest for years
Fishermen look over about 2,000 pounds of fish—most of it Asian carp—caught in Kentucky Lake, a reservoir on the Tennessee River now teeming with the invasive species.
By
Cameron McWhirter | Photographs by William DeShazer for The Wall Street Journal
April 19, 2019 5:30 a.m. ET
In Kentucky Lake, a giant reservoir on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, silvery Asian carp the size of healthy piglets flop out of the water, sometimes hitting boats.
They are everywhere—and creating an economic problem.
The invasive fish are scaring away tourists and threatening recreational fishing businesses, since most anglers seek crappies and bass, not Asian carp.
Southern states are now ramping up efforts to control the problem—and some officials worry they may be too late. For years, Midwestern states and the federal government have spent millions of dollars on research, electric barriers and other methods to keep Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes and hurting its ecology and $7 billion annual fishing industry.
The affected Southern states are pushing for $12 million in federal funding to control the spread of carp, a big increase from the $600,000 they secured this fiscal year. Anglers spend about $2.9 billion annually in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, the American Sportfishing Association estimates.
“There’s a huge potential for economic impact,” said Nick Nichols, Alabama’s chief of fisheries.
Scale Factor
Over the past five years, the number of invasive Asian carp recorded in inland U.S. waters has more than doubled compared with the five-year period a decade earlier, driven largely by the fish’s expansion into mid-South.
Number of Asian carp found in U.S. watersheds
26-50
2-5
1
More
than 50
6-25
2004-2008
2014-2018
Kentucky Lake
Source: USGS
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What should governments do about invasive species and plants? Join the conversation below.
Collectively known as Asian carp, four species of the fish were brought to the South from China and other parts of Asia in the 1960s and ’70s to help clean wastewater ponds. Largely through flooding, they escaped into rivers and lakes, quickly establishing burgeoning populations in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and in many connecting rivers and lakes.
The fish, often weighing 15 or 20 pounds and sometimes more, slam into hulls and leap into boats, sometimes striking people. They reproduce year-round, with their spawn quickly growing too large for potential predators. They eat up much of the plankton, upsetting the food chain and hurting popular fish species. Businesses have tried to get Americans to start eating carp, so far with little success.
Steve McCadams, a professional hunting and fishing guide on Kentucky Lake, catches a crappie from his boat.
Steve McCadams, a fishing guide on Kentucky Lake for 42 years, said Americans see carp as “trash fish,” even though he says a cooked carp doesn’t taste bad.
“The word ‘carp’ is hard for the public to overcome,” he said.
On the lake—one of the largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi, created in the 1940s by damming the Tennessee River—fishers wield bows and arrows to kill as many carp as they can. Commercial fishers deploy huge nets to catch the invaders en masse. Because carp eat plankton, they can’t be caught with baited hooks.
David Alvey, 37, who has lived and fished on the 160,000-acre lake his whole life, said small businesses have visits from out-of-towners decline as the carp have spread.
“You’ll hear them hit the bottom of your boat all the time,” he said. “It’s always a concern that one of them is going to fly up and hit some kid on your boat.”
Joe Hall, an employee at Hart’s Fish Market in Buchanan, Tenn., holds up two Asian carp. The fish, which typically weigh 15 or 20 pounds, haven’t been a culinary hit in the U.S.
To control the carp, state officials are seeking choke points like dams, locks or narrows where they can build electric or sound barriers to scare away the fish, since carp are sensitive to sound. They also are subsidizing commercial fishing ventures and sponsoring recreational tournaments focused just on carp.
The efforts will cost millions annually, said Frank Fiss, Tennessee’s chief of fisheries, who added that the carp invasion has overwhelmed state resources and is “out of control from a strategy standpoint. I’m barely keeping my head above water with what’s happening.”
Exporting Asian Carp Back to Their Homeland
The infestation of Asian carp in the Mississippi River has become a big problem. But some entrepreneurs have figured out a solution: export them back to Asia. WSJ's Arian Campo-Flores reports. Photo:Joe Buglewicz for The Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with federal and state agencies and academics, are working to develop a sound and bubble barrier to scare away carp near the Lake Barkley dam on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Similar barriers are needed across the region, Mr. Fiss said.
Scientists are trying to better understand how Asian carp reproduce to figure out ways to limit their populations, said Mike Weimer, a senior fish biologist with the USFWS. Complete eradication is unlikely, he said.
Travis McLeese, executive director of the chamber of commerce for Tennessee’s Henry County, home to about 32,000 people bordering Kentucky Lake, applauds the efforts but has his worries.
“All that takes time, and with tourism, time is something we don’t have,” he said. “A fisherman will go somewhere else and not come back.
