| Thirty
years ago, the only carp in Louisiana was the so-called
German carp, which has been here so long that many people
think it’s a native fish. In fact, it came originally
from western Asia and had been moved all over Europe and
then to the U.S. It’s now considered a pest and has
few uses.
In the
1970s, freshwater fishermen in Louisiana began seeing grass
carp, which became fairly common in the big rivers. And
in the 1980s, several additional species started showing
up. We now have sizeable populations of German, grass, bighead
and silver carp, and several black carp have also been caught.
All
of these species are native to Asia, with the last four
being brought to the U.S. for use in pond fish culture.
When a few escaped into waters in the Mississippi valley,
it was only a matter of time until they spread to nearly
every water body in that system. They are becoming more
and more common in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers,
as well as in most areas that are reached by the floodwaters
of those rivers.
All
Asian carp can get large, with individual fish well over
50 pounds in weight. They are undoubtedly displacing our
native species of fish to some degree, though no one can
predict what the final impacts will be to our aquatic ecosystems.
They are a definite problem for commercial fishermen, who
find their nets damaged and then often have no buyers for
what they land. Boaters have been injured by silver and
bighead carp, which have the habit of jumping high out of
the water when a boat passes.
So far,
few markets are taking these fish, although they are very
popular food fish in Asia. All are bony, with the same type
of intramuscular bones that are found in buffalo fish. One
use for these fish is crab and crawfish bait, which is in
short supply in Louisiana during parts of the year. However,
the time and expense of cutting large fish into pieces of
the desired sizes has been a problem.
LSU
biological and agricultural engineering professor Lynn Hannaman
has developed a machine that cuts large fish into bait-sized
pieces in a single pass. A number of such machines have
been developed in the past, but fishermen were often unhappy
with the product. The new equipment makes clean, even cuts
with little waste. Hopefully, this will result in a win-win-win
situation: hoop net fishermen will be able to sell these
fish, and crabbers and crawfish fishermen and farmers will
have a steady supply of locally caught bait, and the rivers
will have fewer invasive species.
Anyone
interested in learning more about this machine can contact
Lynn at (225) 578-2918, or at lhannaman@agcenter.lsu.edu.
Hopefully, this pest species can be turned into a useful
product.
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