Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: GrizzlysDad on April 04, 2013, 09:18:53 PM
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This is not encouraging news >:(
http://news.yahoo.com/report-asian-carp-may-reached-great-lakes-130205163.html
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This will not be good.
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It might be time to buy a smoker! Won't the Pike and Muskie help keep them under control a little bit?
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As I understand it, part of the problem with the asian carp is that none of our fish like to eat them. There are some areas where the carp is really heavy, the locals are trying to have cooking competitions. The thinking is if we can turn them into sport fish, maybe we can control it. Hope and pray anyhow.
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Didn't Doug Sweet mention them not being able to spawn that easily in the Great Lakes during his visit?
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Nothing good comes from asia not even TVs.
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If they are in fact in the lakes, maybe offering a cash bounty on them would help. Hmmm.
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Being an avid angler/fly fisherman and running the fly fishing/tying/rod building websites that I run the Asian carp issue is one myself and many other anglers & guides in Michigan have been trying to get something done about for years before the Great Lakes ever tested positive for them. Back when the Illinois river first started getting hit hard with them we knew it was just a matter of time till they reached the Great Lakes. We've been writing letters, calling/contacting all the appropriate state officials for years now but not much at all has been done to prevent this on the states end so far.
The big problem with Asian carp is that they grow so damn fast, breed like rabbits, and a small group of 10 can quickly turn into 1000's in no time flat. Then the other problem with them is that they are filter feeders. They sift the water filtering out micro organisims which creates two problems. One is that they take all the base forms of life out of the water in the food chain because they are filter feeders so everything in the area starves and dies when the food chain collapses. And because they are filter feeders they do not take lures, flies, bait which prevents them from being caught on rod & reel.
The only thing that is still "good" about this is that they have only shown up in the DNA tests that the DNR have preformed on the Great Lakes. Which means that to this day they still have yet to have an actual fish body turn up in the Great Lakes. And the DNA tests have actually been showing positive for them for the past 3-4 years now. The bad part is when an actual fishs body does show up, well it's already close to being too late at that point.
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Didn't Doug Sweet mention them not being able to spawn that easily in the Great Lakes during his visit?
Yes he did mention that, IIRC, it had to do with their preferred spawning areas...my concern is that lakes can change and I would hate to see any of these types get a finhold in our waters.
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^ Great post Steve. Saved me from lots of typing wanting to say the same things.
I wouldn't be surprised if some have actually made it. The politics of the issue resulted in a lot of foot dragging and gimmicky crap to try and suppress them from moving upstream. IMO the river should have been closed off, done deal, and cargo could incur some additional cost being unloaded from boat A and carted some distance to boat B. Even then, there's still the chance that waterfowl or some vengeful idiot would help them get to Lake Michigan anyways. >:(