27-Pound Bighead Carp Caught In St. Croix River
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- A commercial fisherman caught a 27-pound bighead carp in the St. Croix River, prompting the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to get an action plan together to stop the spread.
The 34-inch-long, 5-year-old fish was caught on Monday near U.S. Highway 10 near Prescott, Wis. where the St. Croix and the Mississippi River meet.
The bighead carp are similar to Asian carp, which have been known to cause serious damage to other fish species and aquatic ecosystems.
The problem with Asian carp is their large mouth acts like a vacuum cleaner, inhaling the plants that sport fish need to survive.
The DNR fears this could be the beginning of an Asian Carp invasion that could include the bighead's cousin, the leaping silver carp which can knock boaters into the water.
Once the species enters the waterways, it's very difficult to control and in some states with high Asian carp densities, such as in portions of the Illinois River, they can represent up to 90 percent of the fish population, according to the Minnesota DNR.
"My opinion is that the fish are just starting to get here. They're just creeping up the river. There are high numbers in Iowa," said Luke Skinner of the DNR invasive species unit. "Our lock and dams are slowing them down but they're not going to prevent them. At some point they're going to get up here and they are going to get established and we don't want that to happen."
The Minnesota DNR said there isn't evidence yet that the bighead carp are reproducing in Minnesota but officials are still very concerned.
"They will eat up to roughly 40 percent of their body weight per day," said Brad Parsons with the DNR. "When they get into the numbers that we have seen in the Missouri River and the Illinois River it can be a real issue messing up the food chain."
Right now the legislature is considering a bonding proposal to improve the Coon Rapids Dam on the Mississippi River that would be a physical barrier to the carp.
"Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to stop Asian carp in large river systems," said DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr in a statement. "Our best hope is to stop them at physical barriers on the Mississippi River."
DNR officials hope to meet soon with Minnesota's congressional delegation to talk about barrier options and other strategies to keep the carp species out of Minnesota waterways.
The DNR willuse a new DNA water sampling technique to track the fish.
"Now with this new find, we'lluse this information to decide where we're going to sample the river to see how far they have spread upstream," said Skinner.
Since 1996, this is the seventh time a bighead carp has been caught in the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers in Minnesota, but only the second bighead caught in the St. Croix River.
