Asian carp: what's the big deal?
The seemingly docile plankton-feeding habits of the innocent-looking Asian carp are the main reason they can wreak so much havoc on an ecosystem. Asian carp aren't vicious predators, nor do they even directly compete with predatory sport fish. Instead, they compete with small plankton-feeding fish and invertebrates that would normally provide food for sport fish. However, they are far too large, at least in adulthood, to serve as forage themselves. Thus, they starve the fish highest on the food chain by targeting the plankton that form the food chain's base.
Meanwhile, while predatory invasives like the Burmese python (Animal Planet's Man-Eating Super Snake) and snakehead fish (stars of a B horror film) get excessive media attention without ever hurting anyone in the wild, silver carp have actually caused broken jaws, noses, ribs, arms, and legs. True, they almost certainly didn't mean to hurt anybody. Instead, they are very easily startled, particularly by moving boats, and when they are startled, they jump high out of the water. It's easy to imagine that getting clotheslined by a ten-pound fish while zooming along in a speedboat could cause serious injury.
Furthermore, while Burmese pythons and snakehead fish are mostly restricted to the sub-tropical climate of Florida, Asian carp have spread throughout the immense Mississippi River Basin. It now populates huge rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio, a multitude of reservoirs, like the Lake of The Ozarks and Thomas Hill Reservoir, and countless smaller tributaries. In fact, the appearance of Asian carp in such a small tributary, the Chariton river of my native Kirksville, is one of the main reasons I care so much about fighting this invasion.
This site was created by Joey Benevento in Emory University's Domain of One's Own Program as part of an English 212W class with Professor Marc Bousquet.
Meanwhile, while predatory invasives like the Burmese python (Animal Planet's Man-Eating Super Snake) and snakehead fish (stars of a B horror film) get excessive media attention without ever hurting anyone in the wild, silver carp have actually caused broken jaws, noses, ribs, arms, and legs. True, they almost certainly didn't mean to hurt anybody. Instead, they are very easily startled, particularly by moving boats, and when they are startled, they jump high out of the water. It's easy to imagine that getting clotheslined by a ten-pound fish while zooming along in a speedboat could cause serious injury.
Furthermore, while Burmese pythons and snakehead fish are mostly restricted to the sub-tropical climate of Florida, Asian carp have spread throughout the immense Mississippi River Basin. It now populates huge rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio, a multitude of reservoirs, like the Lake of The Ozarks and Thomas Hill Reservoir, and countless smaller tributaries. In fact, the appearance of Asian carp in such a small tributary, the Chariton river of my native Kirksville, is one of the main reasons I care so much about fighting this invasion.
This site was created by Joey Benevento in Emory University's Domain of One's Own Program as part of an English 212W class with Professor Marc Bousquet.