It’s not clear whether the carp’s numbers will increase here rapidly because it takes certain conditions to induce spawning.
The Great Miami River mouth is just miles west of the Little Miami on the Ohio River, so the fish has already passed there on its way east. It’s the first time the fish has been detected in Ohio waters.
The fish likes broad, slow-moving rivers, but has shown it can go about anywhere. The Great Miami is generally faster moving and the fish has low dams to cross before it arrives here, said Michael Enright, conservation biologist for Five Rivers MetroParks. When it does arrive sometime in the next decade, fish such as small-mouth bass, catfish and blue gills could be reduced in number as the voracious carp competes for fish food such as plankton.
Ken Hudak, president of the 250-member Miami Valley Fly Fishers, hopes the fish doesn’t arrive any time soon. The area has some of the best small-mouth bass fishing, he said, and brown trout fishing can be had on the Mad River south of West Liberty. Hudak is hoping the carp won’t get that far because of high dams.
Jim Garvey, director of the Center for Fisheries at Southern Illinois University, has researched the fish for a decade and is impressed by how relentlessly it spreads.
The carp will stick to one area for a long period, but will migrate quickly and travel up to 150 miles in two months during flood conditions when low dams are submerged.
It likes conditions of heavier agricultural runoff that put nutrients into the water, he added. The fish populates the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri river systems, Garvey said.
Rich Carter, Ohio’s fisheries administrator, said state officials are watching the situation closely.
At this point, the reports are isolated observations. No breeding populations have been found in Ohio yet, Carter said.
Friday, Congress voted to have the Army Corps of Engineers speed a strategy to keep the Great Lakes free of Asian carp. Fears are that the carp could cause havoc in the Great Lakes and harm prized sport fish such as walleye.
The fish arrived in the U.S. in the 1970s after fish farmers imported it to help keep commercial ponds clean.
The Asian carp is a popular meal in China. But if you go fishing, you should wear protective gear like a hockey mask because it can weigh up to 60 pounds and leap into your boat and into you. There’s no catch limit, and with a good recipe, it can be good eating, Garvey said.
A development group including U.S. and Chinese investors is preparing to build an Asian carp-processing plant near the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in Grafton, Ill., The Associated Press reported. The group, American Heartland Fish Products, plans to process carp for export to Asian countries or make it into fish meal or fish oil.
It could be the best hope for keeping the fish in check, Garvey said. Commercial fishing is allowed on interstate waterways.
“We want to get rid of them,” he said. “The more people can do to do their part, the better.”
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