"Asian Carp Czar" - No, It's Not A Joke.

I hate to keep carping on the same old subject, but this topic has gotten my interest, and in this age of the internet search engine I enjoy slaking my curiosity with the abundance of information that's out there and available at my fingertips (reminds me of the city of Alexandria).

One of the things I've been looking for, and have yet to find, is concrete evidence that the asian carp (as yet) has indeed negatively impacted native fish populations. I'm beginning to think that even the experts are not certain at just how destructive these fish will be. In fact I've picked up bits and pieces like this:

“Asian carp do in fact have native predators. Young Asian carp look just like Baby Shad, and native perch, walleye, pike and muskie eat shad. The perch alone depending on size could eat Asian carp most of their first year, including the eggs and fry....Chinese and American experts say Asian carp young are very bad at predator avoidance. Carp control experts say that “in areas where carp are not yet established, a dense predator base should be maintained to provide a high level of predation on young carp.”
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/01/we_can_beat_asian_carp_threat.html

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“There were more largemouth bass and more white bass this year than we’ve seen in a while,”......We caught more largemouth bass this year than we have in the past 15 years – in defiance of 15-year trend.” [THIS WAS IN SPITE OF A SERIOUS 15 YEAR DECLINE IN THE GIZZARD SHAD POPULATION (the topic of the article which implies that asian carp could be responsible for the decline of gizzard shad which is food fish for game fish)...]

However:

“John Chick, director of the Great Rivers Field Station near Brighton has been studying Asian carp for a decade. He says he was just about ready to publish a paper noting a 15-year trend in a decline in gizzard shad populations when numbers shot back up unexpectedly.”
http://www.sj-r.com/carousel/x23196...-Asian-Carp-be-competing-for-food-with-Eagles

The fact is that the jury is still out on just how serious a problem the carp will really be. It's still theory.

 

More carping. As I said, I hold to a capitalistic, free market, Libertarian solution to the problem and here's an example of it. The fly in the ointment here is that the socialist state of Illinois has it's grubby lil' paws in it, and with the appointment of the Federal Carp Czar, the Feds will undoubtedly also be involved (the thought just occurred to me, maybe the bureaucrats have seen $$$$ in this all along, and Illinois is only one of many states with a growing asian carp population):

“CHICAGO – July 13, 2010. .....Illinois is entering into an agreement with Chinese meat processing company Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Company and Big River Fisheries located in Pearl, Ill. to harvest 30 million pounds of carp from Illinois rivers. Big River will process, package and ship the fish to Zhuochen for resale in international markets where the fish is a delicacy. The company is expected to harvest at least 30 million pounds of fish for the purpose of this agreement by the end of 2011.....“The high quality and taste of the wild Asian carp from Big River Fish far exceeded our expectations. We see a tremendous market in China for the wild Asian carp,” said Mr. Liang Chang, Chairman, Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry. “As Big River Fish's production capacity increases, we will be able to expand our marketing efforts in China.”....”

http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=8624

 

All fish are equal but some are more equal than others. In the Pacific North West salmon and steelhead are necessary for the local religion.