Asian carp is a term that groups together several species of carp native to Eurasia, commonly referring to the four East Asian species silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp (or white amur) and black carp (or black amur), which were introduced to North America during the 1970s and are now regarded as invasive in the United States.
The four species, now also known commercially as Copi in the United States, are staple food fish in their native China, where they are collectively known as qing cao lian yong () or "Four Great Domestic Fish" () and are farmed extensively.
Asian carp and related fish Hypophthalmichthys molitrix – silver carp, silverfin, lian H. nobilis – bighead carp, yong Ctenopharyngodon idella – grass carp, white amur, cao Mylopharyngodon piceus – black carp, black amur, qing
Other Cyprinoidei fish farmed in China Common carp, amur carp, and crucian carp are also common food fishes in China and elsewhere. Goldfish, though, are cultivated mainly as pet fish.
Cyprinus carpio – common carp C. rubrofuscus – Amur carp Carassius auratus – goldfish C. carasius – crucian carp, crucian Cirrhinus molitorella – dace, mud carp Megalobrama amblycephala – blunt snout bream, Wuchang bream
Characteristics
These four fish have been cultivated in aquaculture in China for over 1,000 years.
Bighead and silver carp are the most important fish worldwide in terms of total aquaculture production.Kolar et al. 2007. Bigheaded carp: Biological synopsis and environmental risk assessment. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.
Asian carp are big fish, with black amur adults growing as big as 33 lbs (15 kg) on average, with the biggest one weighing 150 lbs (70 kg).
Bighead and silver carp can crossbreed and produce hybrid offspring.
Jumping of silver carp
Silver carp are easily frightened by boats, which cause them to leap between into the air, and numerous boaters have been severely injured by collisions with the fish.P.J. Perea, Asian Carp Invasion, OutdoorIllinois, May 2002 (Ill. Dept. Natural Resources), at 8. , Retrieved February 19, 2008. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "reported injuries include cuts from fins, black eyes, broken bones, back injuries, and concussions". This behavior has sometimes been attributed to the very similar bighead carp, but these do not normally jump when frightened. Catching jumping carp in nets has become part of the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath, Illinois.Crossett, Larry, "Redneck Fishing Tournament draws crowds" , GateHouse News Service/Pekin Times, August 9, 2010 8:00 AM.
Recreational fishing
The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), and black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), as well as common carp (Cyprinus carpio), are popular targets for recreational fishermen in the Midwest, despite their status as invasive species. These species are unique because they can be caught using the traditional fishing technique of a fishing rod, reel, and hook. Other invasive carp species – the Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) are not traditionally caught on rod and reel because they feed on plankton, therefore they do not bite on baited hooks or lures.
As food Asian carp have been a popular food fish in Asia for thousands of years. In North America, various Asian carp species are often lumped with the common carp and considered undesirable trash fish because common carp is unpopular as food in this region.Gallagher, Jim, "Let them eat carp: Illinois to feed pest fish to the poor", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 14, 2011 4:45 pm. Furthermore, even the common carp, which was introduced to North America from Europe in the 17th century, is important food fish outside North America.
The pearly white flesh, though complicated by intermuscular bones, has a mild taste. The filter-feeding silver and bighead carp have much lower heavy metal contamination (such as mercury) than most other fish because they are algivorous primary consumers that do not eat other aquatic invertebrates or fishes and therefore are the least impacted by biomagnification.
The Hangzhou dish West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy, traditionally made with white amur, is controversial for its flavor.
Copi is available in restaurants in Illinois, Arizona, and Washington, DC.; in 7 fish markets in Illinois and Tennessee; and through 7 fish distributors in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Maryland, and Wisconsin.ChooseCopi.com
Pet food There are companies making pet food using silver carp in the US and Canada.
As ornamental fish Yuquan (), one of the well-known scenic spots in Hangzhou, features a large fish pond teeming with hundreds of fish in various colors. As of 2022, many of the fish there are black amur, with additional bighead carp, nishikigoi, sharpbelly and white amur. A three-character inscription, Yu Le Guo (), meaning "fish's paradise", is set above one end of the pond in the calligraphy of a famous gentry-scholar of the late Ming Dynasty named Dong Qichang ().
Introduction to North America
Environmental impact Some species of Asian carp cause harm when they are introduced to new environments, especially when free from the risk of predation and allowed to propagate rapidly. The black carp feeds on native mussels and snails, some of which are already endangered. Grass carp can alter the food webs of a new environment by altering the communities of plants, invertebrates, and fish. Silver carp feed on the plankton necessary for larval fish and native mussels.Silver Carp USDA National Agricultural Library. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
Bighead and silver carp feed by filtering plankton from the water. Their escape and settlement throughout the Mississippi and its connecting waterways have raised great concern about the health of historic biodiversity, with their extremely high abundance placing greater pressure on competition for food and space. Due to their filter-feeding habits as well, their populations are made more difficult to capture and control as conventional angling methods are less effective.
The disruption these species impose on food web dynamics has also cascaded into economic losses for regional industries, hurting businesses reliant on local biodiversity and habitat health. Both recreational and commercial fishermen have been forced out of typical fisheries due to carp disruption, all the while tourism and boating are impacted by declining environmental health and safety concerns from leaping silver carp.
History In the late 19th century, the common carp was widely distributed throughout the United States by the United States Fish Commission as a food fish. In the 1970s, fish farmers in mostly southern states began importing Asian carp from China to help clean their commercial ponds—consuming unwanted biomass to regulate overgrowth and parasitic establishment.The Carp Must Die in BusinessWeek, February 16, 2012Great Lakes states sue to stop Asian carp invasion in The Capital Times, January 13, 2010. However, escaping these aquaculture facilities, carp have overtaken surrounding waterways, distributing via sanitation canals, commercial passages, and by flooding into untouched waters. The rise in the populations of bighead and silver carp has been dramatic where they are established in the Mississippi River basin.
Because of their prominence and the fact that they were introduced to the United States much later than other Asian carp species, the term "Asian carp" is often used to refer specifically to grass, black, silver, and bighead carp. In the U.S., Asian carp are considered to be invasive species. Of the carp species introduced to the United States, only two (crucian and black carp) are not known to be firmly established. Crucian carp is probably extirpated. Since 2003, however, several adults, fertile black carp have been captured from the Atchafalaya and other rivers connected to the Mississippi River. Dr. Leo Nico, in the book Black carp: Biological Synopsis and Risk Assessment of an Introduced Fish, reports that black carp are probably established in the United States. In South Florida, the local water management district stocks the canals with sterilized grass carp to control the hydrilla plant, which tends to clog the locks and drainage valves that regulate water flow from the Everglades.
Distribution Bighead, silver, and grass carp are known to be well-established in the Mississippi River basin (including tributaries), where they at times reach extremely high numbers, especially in the case of the bighead and silver carp. Bighead, silver, and grass carp have been captured in that watershed from Louisiana to South Dakota, Minnesota, and Ohio. Grass carp are also established in at least one other watershed, in Texas, and may be established elsewhere.
Grass carp have been captured in all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior, but so far, no evidence indicates a reproducing population. No silver carp or black carp have yet been found in any of the Great Lakes. Common carp are abundant throughout the Great Lakes.
A few bighead and grass carp have been captured in Canada's portions of the Great Lakes, but no Asian carp (other than common carp) is known to be established in Canada at this time. Concerns exist that the silver carp may spread into Cypress Hills in Alberta and Saskatchewan through Battle Creek, the Frenchman River, and other rivers flowing south out of the hills into the Milk River. Ontario does not have Asian carp yet and has used the provincial Invasive Species Act to prohibit their import.
In Mexico, grass carp have been established for many years in at least two river systems, where they are considered invasive, but no other Asian carp are known to have been introduced.
Management in the US Field actions
These fish are thought to be highly detrimental to the environment in parts of the United States. Because of these concerns, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service convened stakeholders to develop a national plan for the management and control of invasive Asian carp (referring to bighead, silver, black, and grass carp). The plan was accepted by the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force in the fall of 2007.
As of 2016, efforts were underway to reintroduce alligator gar between Tennessee and Illinois as part of a program to control Asian carp.
In 2019, Kentucky declared "War on Carp" and started to use electrofishing and sonic devices to remove 5 million pounds of Asian carp from Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake.
Electrofishing has become an extensive technique for managing Asian carp populations throughout the Midwest's river systems. It involves using electric waves to stun (non-lethally) invasive fish at the water's surface, where fishermen can then corral them into a net and remove them from the ecosystem. Electrofishing is also safe for the native species of fish that cohabit the waters where it is implemented, because they avoid the electrofishing boats by diving deeper into the water column, where as the carp jump near the surface, getting stunned in the process.
Conclusive results have shown that electrofishing is an effective and efficient method for managing the Asian carp invasion in Midwestern waterways. A typical electrofishing boat can shock 100 carp per minute of fishing, using 110–500 volts. The fish captured are then humanely killed and used as food or fertilizer for crops. However, the technique has sparked questions about potential negative impacts that it may have on the rivers' ecosystems. If electrofishing boats go over spawning grounds for native fish, it could potentially cause harm to fish embryos.
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