As I've noted, repeatedly, the Asian carp are not bottom feeders in the same way common (German Brown) carp are.
These Asian carp much prefer to feed on plankton and small bits of vegetation.
Once people get that through their heads, they'll be more likely to try eating some of it.
'Merica could eat it's way part-way out of "the problem".
Whooo, golly, is there a lot of silliness on this thread.
You are exactly correct: Asian Carp are NOT bottom feeders. In fact, a big part of the problem is that because they are filter feeders of plankton and such, and quickly occupy so much of the biomass in a body of water, they eat the bottom of the food chain away from the usual small fish and critters that then support the next level, and so on. They literally starve out their competition.
Out of decent water, cleaned and prepared correctly, they taste quite good. But, they are very bony.
Fish sausage made from Asian Carp can also be quite tasty. (I bought a couple pounds of such, to try, last year.)
Multiple operations now export processed Asian carp to Asia. So far, that harvest is only a drop in the bucket, but is growing. For example:
http://www.the-messenger.com/news/local/article_6e21c568-0216-11e7-a2ff-e74d37336db5.html
If one has ever visited the area below the spillway @ KY or Barkley dam, the numerous dead carp (yuck!) left there by fishermen attest to the size of the fish. A large “kill” there, in 2014, possibly by a virus* that attacked the carp, demonstrated the amount of protein available.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39850/title/Something-Is-Killing-Asian-Carp/
http://fw.ky.gov/fish/pages/ky-barkley-fishkill.aspx
*I do not know if a virus was confirmed, as little information “followed up”.
I’d also point out that many bottom feeders, again out of decent water, can taste good. Channel catfish (again, properly prepared), come to mind. Granted that the channel catfish most people eat come from farms where they learn to eat commercial catfish feed, most consumed long before it might sink (if it ever does) to the bottom. Also granted that the very best catfish I’ve ever eaten were 3-4 lb. blue catfish out of the Buffalo River in Arkansas = Very good water, and, blues mainly prey on other fish.
I disagree with some of our posters when it comes to nature always finding a solution: Dutch Elm disease is but one example. In the case of Asian Carp, Mo Nature might very well find a solution, or at least an acceptable balance, but, it might take hundreds or thousands of years. I don’t think people dependent on the Great Lakes fisheries would be too happy about waiting around for a 1000 year “fix”.
That said, along that line, it would seem that very large blue and flathead catfish, though still rare, may be becoming more numerous. One might speculate that the relative few who do make it to be big enough to eat an average adult Asian Carp are having a field day. It also may be that slot limits are needed: Say, blues over 20 lbs. must be returned to the water they came out of.
As for a solution to keeping them out of the Great Lakes, the problem of eggs on birds’ feet, or predatory birds carrying a fish some distance, and then for whatever reason dropping the fish back into water, cannot be discounted at all.
My proposal is a series of 4 or 5 of those “electric fences” along the river, leading to a downstream dam: The “uppermost” fence would be 50 miles straight line distance from the dam, and normally, the lake is kept @ 1/2 of capacity. Overstock that baby and the “fenced” sections of river with predatory fish, and regulate fishing as needed to encourage their numbers and size. (Maybe NO fishing in the uppermost section.) If Asian Carp are ever found above the “lowermost” fence, close the dam during a low water-flow period, and apply Rotenone from it to the next-to uppermost fence. After a few days, the Rotenone will degrade, and the dam can be reopened. Desirable fish from the uppermost section will repopulate the lower sections with time. (It may be necessary to close fishing entirely, for a period.)
Notes / fine tuning:
Closing the dam will be harmful to fish downstream, and commercial traffic.
Potassium Permanganate can be used to deactivate Rotenone in water, to lower toxicity back down to acceptable levels, if the treatment period needs to be shortened. Normally, Rotenone breaks down fairly quickly: At 24 °C, the half-life in natural waters is ~1/2 day, at 0 °C it is 3-4 days.
A 2 dams & lakes setup could mitigate river level problems below the dams, and lake level problems as well. But, the cost is already very high. This is not exactly a deserted area...