Crazy Carp Have Invaded Missouri's River

NW Cable News ^ | 08/28/03 | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Crazy carp have invaded Missouri's rivers. Two species of nonnative carp have been jumping into boats, injuring occupants and damaging the watercraft.

A state fisheries biologist motoring near Columbia had a filling knocked out of his tooth by a high-flying fish that struck him on the side of the head. Another state biologist in the St. Charles area was seriously hurt when he was hit by a giant carp.

Brian Todd of the Missouri Department of Conservation said the big head carp and silver carp were brought to private fish hatcheries from Asia by the aquaculture industry. They were intended to eat excess algae and waste in aquaculture ponds - which grow fish for food as well as bait and tropical fish. But they escaped in floodwaters in 1993, 1995 and 2002.

"This could be an indefinite problem," Todd said. "They are safe to eat, but ecologically they could damage the mussel population and are competing with native fish for food. We are going to hear more and more over the next few years about the problems these fish are causing, especially injuries to boaters and anglers."

Todd said the carp have been spotted in many of Missouri's rivers, including throughout the Missouri River.

"The sound of a propeller under water makes these fish go crazy," Todd said. "The fish don't jump if you're sitting there without the motor on, but the higher the RPMs, the greater the noise, the higher these fish jump."

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[TexasRepublic]

How come its always their exports that overwhelm ours?

Their exports must be the street-toughs and riffraff of the animal kingdom. Genteel animals don't stand a chance. :-)

[carptracker]

I am a fisheries biologist working with methods to control Asian carp. I wanted to point out that it lots of our animals ARE problems overseas. Bullfrogs have made it across the pond, and are eating up European frogs as fast as they can gobble them down. Largemouth bass are a big problem in China (they are upset that they are eating up their carp!) Snapping turtles are also getting to be a problem in Europe. That's just a beginning. There are lots more animals from the US that are kicking butt in foreign countries.

[Desdemona]

It's the zebra mussel, I thought, that is the problem in the Missouri/Mississippi sytem.

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[carptracker]

The carp that you see jumping out of the water "just for fun" are probably common carp, they kind that are pictured by another poster in this link. They are not silver carp, the kind of carp that often hit boaters. The silver carp looks more like a salmon. Silver carp will occasionally jump from the water for no apparent reason, but not as often as common carp do. Common carp jump into the air when they are feeding on the bottom. Most people believe this is to knock sediment from their gills. They almost never jump into boats when they are doing this.

[PJ-Comix]

Two species of nonnative carp have been jumping into boats, injuring occupants and damaging the watercraft.

"Crazy Killer Carp" would have been a great movie subject but the era of that movie genre ended in the 70s. Remember those flicks? Giant ants, Killer Crocs, Killer Bees, etc.. I think Attack of the Killer Tomatoes might have ended that era of cinematic style.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thanks for the info. I'm not much of a fresh water fisherman - do occasionally go out on salt water with my dad down at the GA coast. I'm more likely to be in the water than on it, or at least in a kayak, from which fishing is usually a little risky if you hook a big one . . . :-D

[carptracker]

These fish are large and they have hard heads. Anything that a thrown bowling ball would hurt, a flying silver carp will also hurt. They break radios, railings, windows, fishing rods, depthfinders, my technicians, etc. And that's if the boat isn't moving. Add in 20 or 30 mph of boat velocity and you've got a dangerous situation, which is why I built shields (from netting)around the people on my boat. Incidentally, the pictured fish is not a silver carp, which does most of the jumping into boats, but it is a common carp. Silver carp can get MUCH larger than common carp.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Great! Now I can go fishing with a net!

[carptracker]

A reader of this article would assume that bighead and silver carp eat mussels, which is not true. I suspect that Todd was misquoted, because there is another Asian carp that does eat mussels, but that one has not yet been established in the wild in the US (although it is in use in the US in aquaculture). The bighead carp and the silver carp are filter feeders. They are a problem to the environment because they reach enormous biomasses in some areas and have the potential to if not "cut off" the food web at the bottom, at least cause a serious constriction there. Silver carp are the ones that jump into the boats.

[New Horizon]

There is also the threat that these fish will accidently get into the Great Lakes. If they do, they will wreck havok with the fishing industry here...

When I was up in Petoskey as a teenager, my brother and I saw dozens of huge carp that were "running" between small inland ponds off of Lake Michigan.

We caught one, well over 3 feet long, with our bare hands.

I probably wouldn't attempt the same thing with one of these carp, however.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

I wanted to point out that it lots of our animals ARE problems overseas.

Jimmy Carter, Hitlery, Sean Penn, Ramsey Clark, X42, General Clark etc

[carptracker]

Wow - this is an active board - two replies before I got done posting. By the way - if you live around here you CAN go fishing with a landing net. Just drive around and catch them out of the air. It's not hard to catch a couple hundred pounds of fish in a short while, if you have three or four people wielding nets. I also shot one out of the air with a bow and arrow - but had six fish jump in the boat in the time it took two of each to get one with the bow. But look out - it is dangerous. Big heavy fish flying through the air HURT. and they hurt things in your boat, like radios, depth finders, and girl friends.

[carpio]

I saw these fish on the Wabash River in southern Indiana/Illinois last summer while CatFishing there. The first one I saw was about a 15-20 pounder that jumped into a passing boat under power while I was anchored fishing. Caused a Hell of a commotion.

Carpio

[New Horizon]

Cook for three hours at moderate temperature, then eat the board.

Too funny. I made it a rule to never, ever knowingly eat carp, especially the ones we used to pull out of Lake St. Clair.

I recently was eating Gefilte fish, and thought it was pretty good, until I read the ingredients and discovered that carp was included. No more Gefilte fish for me.

[carpio]

We filet and score them. Then soak the scored filets in milk seasoned with Tabasco sauce for an hour or so. Then shake them up in a sack with Zataran's Fish Fry (seasoned corn flour) and deep fry the floured filets at 350 degree's until they float. There is absolutely no better fried fish on earth. And not a bone in a truck full if you score them properly.

Makes me hungry to think of it!!

Carpio

[verity]

Great! Now I can go fishing with a net!

Or a shotgun - if you can lead them just right!:)

[carptracker]

That's bizarre. Why would you not eat something that you've already established is good food? By the way, these silver carp and bighead carp are nothing like the carp of your experience and not really very closely related. And they taste great, which may be their only redeeming quality.

[LibKill]

Then soak the scored filets in milk seasoned with Tabasco sauce for an hour or so.

Hmmm. I don't know much about carp, but the Tabasco part sounds right.

[carptracker]

I am writing an article on instructions for cleaning and eating the Asian carp that have invaded Missouri, and I advise against scoring the filets. The bones are much larger than most people are used to with common carp, partly because the fish are much larger than most common carp. In all but the smallest fish, the bones just don't cook up when scored, even when fried in peanut oil, which seems to help. I recommend either fileting all the intramuscular bones out of the meat (can't show you how without pictures) or to cut the fish in pieces on a long diagonal through the meat, BETWEEN the bones. That way you leave the bones in big pieces, which are easier to deal with. When you cut on the long diagonal, you get disks of meat with two or three bones. Fry the disks, and break them in half. The bones will stay in one half. Pull the bones out by grabbing on the free ends and you now have bonesless meat. YUM.