Carpe Diem: Is This The Answer To This Fishy Problem? | Real Wild Channel

North America is at war with a very slippery foe controlling the carp is a matter of knowing thy enemy the invader is ingenious and seemingly unstoppable tell people that come here from every state imaginable not to let these fish get in your waters because once you do they're out of control and you're stuck with them on the Mississippi River they have become public enemy number one there has never been a fish more in need of a public relations campaign than Asian carp the advancing Asian carp are only a hundred kilometres from the Great Lakes can they be stopped [Music] [Music] the Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system on earth and they're being threatened by a potentially catastrophic invasion Asian carp are basically knocking on the great lakes store they are one of the biggest threats the Great Lakes is facing right now and in order to deal with this threat we need to be proactive and prevent their arrival and their establishment in the Great Lakes these interconnected waters are brimming with plant and animal life and this is all now at risk from Asian carp the Great Lakes are subject to stresses from every corner the more stress you heap upon the Great Lakes the more likely it is that the whole system is just gonna break down Asian carp could well be the stress that the Great Lakes can't handle at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Burlington Ontario research biologist Becky Cudmore is preparing for the coming attack of this scale a intruder I find Asian carp a fascinating species to work on I do admire their ability to adapt and to survive but that doesn't mean that I want them here in Canada that was driven home when I got to see them in action on the Mississippi River Basin the vast number of species the volume the jumping behavior it was horrifying for every ten fish pulled from that area nine of them are Asian carp they really do overtake the system and they push out native species for an Asian carp the Great Lakes could be a great place to live what we have an abundance in the Canadian Great Lakes are a lot of rivers and tributaries that attach to the Great Lakes and this will provide suitable spawning habitat for Asian carp to spawn and establish so the fact that they're heading that way really does cause us a lot of concern we expect the consequences to be quite dire Canada and the US cannot work separately on this issue the Great Lakes are shared and this is a threat that's of concern to both countries keeping a close eye on this threat is Chicago's Great Lakes Alliance it's a nonprofit agency devoted to protecting and restoring the Great Lakes over the last century the Great Lakes have experienced a number of invasions that ranked above the others species like the sea lamprey the zebra mussel that have really thrown the ecosystem for a loop the Asian carp rank in that category Canada's battle is shared because the watersheds are connected just south of Chicago it's there that Lake Michigan connects to the Mississippi watershed it wasn't always this way before Chicago was settled you had this slope that kept Great Lakes water going one direction and Mississippi River water going the other and what that also did besides keeping the water separate is it kept the fish and wildlife of those two systems separate in 1900 chico goes pollution was festering in lake michigan so American ingenuity created canals to connect the lake to the Illinois River this allowed the water to flow downstream sending Chicago's waste toward the Mississippi River the consequence of that choice is becoming apparent now in the 21st century and we're facing a crisis of invasive species that are threatening to pollute the Great Lakes and Mississippi River in a way that we didn't even think about in 1889 these canals gave a free pass to invasive species by connecting the entire central North American water system for example the invasive zebra mussel has migrated from the st. Lawrence Seaway to the Gulf of Mexico in only 25 years if you wanted to cause an invasion of the Great Lakes I can't think of a better way to do that than to build a hundred foot wide canal running freely between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River that's what we have right now in Chicago but these waterways were just waiting to be exploited by any cunning fish that could accidentally be introduced and that's exactly what happened when Asian carp were brought in from China to clean up fish ponds entrepreneurial folks brought in this fish that eats algae in an attempt to clean out fish ponds what happened not surprisingly was that these fish escaped and pretty soon you had wild populations of carp establishing in the Lower Mississippi in the early 1990s a series of floods along the Mississippi swamped fish farms and thousands more Asian carp escaped into the river and what we've seen over the last several decades is those populations doing what they naturally do migrating to new places and eventually threatening to close in on Lake Michigan the United States Geological Survey Research Facility is in Columbia Missouri the team is working hard to seek solutions to the carp scourge nobody knows the Asian carp better than aquatic biologist Duane Chapman we've got a project next spring where we need to be able to spawn fish so what we're gonna do today is try to catch some spawner Asian carp I do believe that controlling the carp is a matter of knowing thy enemy and that has been my my biggest goal in this whole thing is to understand the carp as fully as the person can understand the car they've always been an amazing organism to me now that we've got this problem it's been an asset to be able to have a long-term relationship with these fish so to speak the Asian carps you might say they each have their own superpower there are nine members of the carp family tree five of them have invaded North America the common carp is an omnivore it was introduced to North America in the 1800s and has been here ever since the grass carp is a voracious eater of vegetation the rare black carp crushes mollusks in its horse-like teeth the two carp that are getting the most attention are the bighead and silver carp their relentless filter feeders that can eat twenty percent of their body weight a day and can grow up to more than 50 kilograms the most notorious family member is the silver carp it has super sensitive skin and hearing so when it's startled it leaps out of the water like an Olympic jumper silver carp respond to nearly any stimulus that scares them and they get scared by nearly any stimulus by going airborne they really are strong fish they can jump high and they kind of feed off each other in this response you know once they starts jumping and scares another one else being in it it gets out of hand pretty quick and it can be dangerous if you're out there on the boat they are highly highly specialized fishes but they seem to be highly adaptable and they do it really really well of all their superpowers it's their ability to reproduce that's truly amazing you'll note today that of all the fish that we caught only one fish was a native fish every other fish we caught was was an Asian carp this vial if you can look close at that has about 3,000 tiny baby Asian carps that were all caught in one pull of a plankton net and this one is the native fish that we caught out of the same haul and there's probably about a hundred fish in this file so this is the problem we're up against the fecundity of these Asian carps is extremely high the fish this size would probably produce at least a quarter million eggs a year carp have a life span of decades so each one has the potential to produce an extended family in the millions when they aren't breeding these fish are eating they vacuum up massive amounts of plankton every day [Music] these are the gill rakers of the silver carp the red part is the part the fish breathes with this part on the inside this increases surface area right in here this is where the food collects then once the food gets into the throat of the fish there are teeth back here these teeth right here Brenda gets a plate in the roof of the mouth and that's how the fish breaks apart to cells that it feeds on it feeds on plankton really really really small stuff they don't have its stomach at all if you look at this gut how long and wraps back and forth and back and forth and this gut is very full and if you look at the stat on here this fish is doing very well this this white is fat the the green is you're seeing the algae that this fish is feeding on through the intestine now if you look at this volume of God there's a lot of food in there a silver carp and if conditions are right can eat up to more than 20% of its body weight in a day that is an awful lot of plankton the river food chain contains plankton and fish of different sizes and they all depend on each other but the hungry Asian carp throws this out of balance by gobbling up the mid sized plankton native fish can't compete the smallest plankton starts to grow out of control creating algae blooms and murky water this leads to reduce biodiversity and pour water visibility so you end up with this really densely green water that doesn't have any food in it that other fish can eat and that's the problem fish like steelhead trout and salmon need to see what's on the menu and Asian carp are always on the hunt for where their next meal is coming from so they're swimming north looking for new habitat their main entry into the Great Lakes would be the Chicago canals there's an expensive and ambitious proposal to slam the door shut on them it's called hydrologic separation when we talk about hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes in Mississippi River what we mean is very simple no water flowing between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi we built a canal a hundred years ago that connected those two systems in a way that nature never intended this monumental plan would completely close the chicago canal system all shipping cargo would have to be lifted over these barriers to make sure that no Asian carp could travel north to Lake Michigan but this is already controversial it's no quick fix and before completion untold numbers of carp could have snuck in hydrologic separation would have a huge economic impact on the barge industry yearly it moves over 600 million tons of freight including petroleum cold grain and steel del Wilkins represents the thousands who depend on open waterways for their living in the beginning of this whole issue I didn't hear anybody talking about the impact to the marine industry and the other industries that depend on this it's a very viable robust industry throughout the Inland Waterway system and the coastal ports of our country 15,000 barges industry-wide about 4,000 to 5,000 boats numbers of employment to be upwards to hundreds of thousands of people the industry recognizes that the influx of the invasive species is a problem do I think that HEIs a logical separation is a solution sure I mean anything can be a solution the question really becomes what is the viability is the infrastructure really ready to be able to handle that transplant of tons that currently moves by water to other modes these waterways feed the North American economy by providing cheap transportation barges use only four litres of fuel to move a ton of freight over 900 kilometers this makes them the most environmentally friendly way to move materials great distances once you handle those tons with another means you've added additional cost so the real question becomes how many more costs in a global economy can the producer and the receiver sustain and accept before we just don't become economically viable but even with the canals closed off Asian carp could still enter the Great Lakes by hitching a ride with boaters through flooding or with birds we keep focusing on the Chicago Sanitary ship canal and the man-made canal as being the only source it's important to look at all the pathways and all of the potential means of allowing this invasive species to go between the watersheds 25 percent of the world's freshwater is the Great Lakes who wouldn't want to protect that but we want to protect it where you have the economy and the environment being inexorably linked both win not a win lose the fact remains though that the canal system is the main invasion route now there are other ways that these fish could be moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River none of them is as high risk as the Chicago canal system we've got to be vigilant about those other connections we've got to address them but we've got to maintain a focus on the chicago canals because that is the far away most likely way that these fish could invade the Great Lakes with the case of the Asian carp we are literally watching a new invasion happen we're watching it approach the Great Lakes we have the best predictive power we've ever had for a new invasion and we've got to use that time to solve the problem Asian carp are a mighty foe this battle demands creativity from scientists too even the military but can we outsmart a fish the relentless Asian carp now rules large stretches of the Mississippi watershed with the Great Lakes in their sights the problem has become urgent so all levels of government have joined forces in their fight against a fish when DCD entering the fish barrier north bound life of entering the fish barrier northbound Lipo when you City Ground Zero in the fight is just 50 kilometers south of Lake Michigan the Army Corps of Engineers are on carp patrol 24 hours a day the Asian carp are clearly something we need to take seriously the engineering community the science community is looking at everything in anything to ensure that this is an effective deterrent this is a one-of-a-kind technology this deterrent uses electricity to repel fish just like an electric fence the barrier will emit electric pulses into the waterway system those pulses will come out of a series of electrodes that are laying on the bottom of the canal itself you would not want to put your your hands in the water there is threat of shock three sets of electrodes each produce a successively stronger electronic pulse the first Cable emits a low energy field that makes most carp uncomfortable enough to turn around the pulses from the second cable are more powerful in repelling the fish the third Cable will knock them unconscious these fish drift downstream to revive unharmed one concern is that baby Asian carp might be able to sneak past the barrier in between barges to monitor whether this is possible some fish are wired with radio transmitters and tracked we have a series of sensors throughout the canal all the way back down into the Illinois River system that can track their movement up to the front line of our aquatic dispersal barrier and in every case we have seen them turn around while zapping the fish appears to be working for now it has yet to be tested on the full onslaught of fish that biologists are battling downstream [Music] the key to fighting carp is knowing the enemy the rivers of Illinois are continually monitored to compare the population sizes of native fish vs. carp invaders Asian carp have an amazing ability to avoid Nets which makes them hard to catch for biologists like Marisa Michaels that also makes them pretty tough to count crews use electro fishing which sends a strong enough charge into the water to stun the fish so they can be examined and counted found adults silver carp population to be about four thousand fish per River kilometer and that equals out to about eight metric tons for a river kilometer this is a smallmouth Buffalo with the big mouth Buffalo we directly compete for food with the silver carp Asian carp are very successful in the Illinois River they're very good at what they do and with the Illinois River Basin being so productive with the nutrients and phytoplankton and zooplankton it's like a smorgasbord for them here you can't really predict the future and it's difficult to tell with an invasive species because they don't act like any other species and it depends on which system they invade you know with the Great Lakes if what happens up there is anything like what's happened down here then it could be catastrophic with Asian carp established in these numbers their removal is impossible the goal of the government scientists is to find ways to control fish behavior to herd or repel them in ways that will reduce their populations though mighty Asian carp have a surprising vulnerability they're extremely sensitive to sound and vibration it makes them downright jumpy the intent of the water gun project is to identify the minimum sound pressure levels that will cause fish to basically change their behavior so this is the experimental pond where we'll be doing the research with silver carp and bighead carp to understand how do they respond to the water gun being fired underwater this right here is one of the smaller water guns it's a 1 cubic inch water gun so this will be suspended in the pond will provide high-pressure air lines to it when the gun is fired that air expands rapidly and forces a traveler to move down through the gun and then it causes that shock wave or that cavitation in the water column to send out up a sound pressure wave through the water body researchers are trying to find out if a specific Soundwave can consistently repel carved if successful then small water guns could block entrances to their favorite spawning grounds with silver carp and bighead carp are very responsive to vibrations in the water column so we think that they're going to be pretty susceptible to water guns and other sound technologies as scientists race to control the fish others have decided to take matters into their own hands in a rather unscientific way the scrappy town of Bath Illinois has decided to fight back with its redneck fishing tournament but this tournament is really a fish cold dressed up as a contest we started seeing these fish about 10 years ago and eight years ago we took a boat ride and these things started jumping out of the water unbelievable it's just like popcorn flying out of the water from every direction and at the end of it we had 32 of these bloody slimy fish and I thought they were going to sink our 16-foot johnboat and I said that's it that's that's enough and so we developed war on the carb Betty created this tournament to try to rid her river of slimy invaders a hundred kilogram flying silver carp had made it too scary for families to maintain their boating culture this is something in a small community like this that's what you have you have your resources here you have the water you teach your kids to fish and swim and have a good time we can't do that here anymore it's very dangerous to take little ones out there that's the main reason for this tournament it's not a moneymaker it's not have never been that it's to educate the public about what is going on with these fish and to tell people that come here from every state imaginable not to let these fish get in your waters because once you do they're out of control and you're stuck with them the dead fish tally is 10,000 but every single person at this tournament is still outnumbered a hundred to one by Asian carp [Music] you come here you see it firsthand like go back and tell wherever you're from I don't care if you have to talk to your Senators your DNR your conservation wherever you have to go you tell them to stop them now don't let them in your waters but could such relentless invaders be stopped in their tracks by something as simple as a magic pill [Music] central Illinois slake Peoria is now infested with Asian carp and they're not leaving anytime soon instead of giving up to local entrepreneurs are focusing on a new sports fishery [Applause] the waterways here are a living breathing thing these fish when they jump and they land in your boat they'll slime your boat but they'll also bleed naturally out of the gills and they'll defecate people just don't want to deal with it the Peoria carp hunters offer up the thrill of aerial bow fishing tours they're actually a real pretty fish in the can he goes about a billion more to go that's it let's go there gonzo approach to fishing has made them YouTube superstars second I saw my first fish jump out of the water I ran back home and got my bow fishing bow and came out and is hooked ever since it started getting too dangerous to where we just had a choice you know either stop doing it or adapt and then we said well you know while these fish are flying out of the water hitting us we might as well we might as well make them pay for doing it carp dice a lot of times people like just ask me is it fake and I have to tell them no it's the real deal these fish are really jumping like that and they're jumping that hot they think it's funny but we're wearing shin guards helmets shoulder pads and we're not just doing it because it looks funny we're doing it cuz you have to you know getting hit in the face by something that big going real fast in a boat can and will kill you [Music] I would be lying to you if I said we're putting a dent in the car population all we're doing here is we're turning lemons into lemonade [Applause] what my videos and you know business actually accomplishes is raising the awareness at least I can get people out there on the river they can see for themselves the total chaos that these fish have caused certainly there are huge numbers of Asian carp but our brute force and sledgehammer solutions the best controls government scientists are looking at ideas that could be a real end game for the carp if we applied poisons like rotenone or Anna mice into a large water body we would likely kill most of the fish if not all the fish and are present in that water body understanding its physiology is helping scientists to develop a custom-made pill that would only harm an Asian carp the Holy Grail might be developing a technology or a tool that could when it's applied to water only impact silver carp and bighead carp and not impact any native species silver carp and bighead carp Achilles heel they have a very extensively developed set of gill rakers and so we're trying to turn that advantage that they have against them this smart bill is now being tested it's a micro particle designed to be trapped in the carps gills but will be filtered out by native fish this pill technology would be loaded with different types of ammunition that would harm the fish the control agent could be a virus it could be a bacterium it could be a vaccine it could be whatever we come up with that might cause some negative effect on the silver carp or bighead curve that doesn't allow them to have that competitive advantage that they seem to have right now but questions remain about what happens to other aquatic life and birds when the poison carp decomposed we also need to understand what the degradation rate is of that control agent so that when it comes out in the water it's going to get broken down and degraded over a certain period of time we're talking about ways that we can control or manage silver carp and bring their levels down to a level that our natural resources can know if the environmental cost is too high what else might be used against them Asian carp do seem to have superpowers but they also have super voracious appetites appetites that might lure them away from breeding grounds biologists are studying which foods produce the strongest responses in the fish well our objective is is to get the fish from this side of the the chamber down to this side of the chamber and what we do is we put Asian carp in here we've got water coming in from both ends of the chamber forming a gradient which drains from the center after we've let the fish acclimated for a period of 45 minutes to an hour and we come in and we start introducing a food stimulus the enticement used in this experiment is highly concentrated algae the scientists predict it will be their favorite so what we want to do is to see how the fish respond to that we hope that the fish that they'll move down past the gradient and start actively feeding where the stimulus is entering into the system hopefully they'll maintain their position in this side of the chamber software tracks the location of the fish with each one indicated in a different color this creates a map of their movements and their choices it's clear the allure of fine dining has dramatic power over them with the food attractant we were getting a prolonged response up to an hour in some cases it's been very consistent in all of our experimental trials so we're hoping to focus on the food attractants as a potential control strategy there's no single solution that will control Asian carp populations tempting treats could be a promising addition to an arsenal of weapons this along with smart pills and water guns might finally affect the carp population one of the lakes predicted to be the most suitable for Asian carp Becky Cudmore at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans knows the carp invasion could explode at any time this department has to be constantly vigilant or the cause will be lost well Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a new Asian carp program that really does focus on prevention and one of the things that we are planning to do is setting up early detection sites around the Great Lakes and in doing so we hope to catch them as soon as possible when we have the best chance of doing something about it there are numerous physical entry points connecting the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes basin the most likely entry would be the Chicago canal system that's very close to an established thriving carp population and they would love the Great Lakes they would find Lake Erie particularly attractive it is shallow it is warm and it is productive and that means that there is a lot of food recent large algae blooms in Lake Erie have created great concern that this food source could fuel an Asian carp population it would only take a few fish for an invasion to start what we feel that would take 10 females and a similar number of males meeting in the same area to establish a population and maybe at first glance you think well the Great Lakes quite huge how would these species find each other well they do queue into suitable spawning habitat and when that happens they have lots of babies Asian carp grow to a large size very quickly in that sense they outgrow any potential predators so they can accumulate large numbers very quickly in doing so they can take over a space pushing out our native species things like while.i yellow perch and we do rely on those for a commercial fishery unlike native species the Asian carps greatest weapon may be its adaptability studies show that if plankton is scarce in the Great Lakes it can feed from an unlikely source the zebra mussel a Great Lakes aquatic invader zebra mussels secrete waste which builds up on the lake bed it's a huge organic meal that's too tempting for a hungry carp in fact we're finding that if Asian carp can consume the biological waste of zebra mussels they will actually thrive in the Great Lakes another adaptive trait that Asian carp possess is the ability to interbreed between the species when populations are low so when bighead and silver carp can't find partners they're happy to date each other this helps their populations to grow quickly people look at Asian carp and think ugly dumb fish but these are really smart fish their net avoiders they will eat whatever they need to in order to survive and they're great swimmers so I think that people underestimate Asian carp so while we're focused on Great Lakes as a potential first point of entry to and waters all of Canadian waters are at risk big hitting silver carp are not only native to Asia they're also native to Russia they are a cold water species as well temperature would not limit their survival computer models show that once Asian carp have a beachhead in any of the Great Lakes over the next 20 to 30 years they would spread as far north as the 60th parallel and with global warming this range could be even larger but the good news and there is some Canada is being aggressive in this fight against aquatic invaders showing up in the Great Lakes Canada would be very different the fisheries would be very different and our ecosystems would be different that's one of the reasons why we are working so hard to prevent these species from entering so water temperature yeah it's 3 degrees Celsius and turbidity is 3.0 mt use but what if the carp are already an occupying force finding the genetic material of Asian carp in Lake water could be evidence that carp have already arrived and are establishing colonies environmental DNA technology could help but it's still not a hundred percent reliable all environmental DNA is really going to tell you is the presence of DNA it doesn't tell you whether or not the actual animal is present in in the system that DNA could have come from other sources carp DNA can be carried in the feces of a bird in a bait bucket or even smeared on the side of a canal barge once you understand the amount of DNA that's actually being potentially transferred into that system you can then monitor that over time and see changes in the amount of DNA which would suggest that you may actually in fact have an invasion taking place within that system what you're actually seeing here is a positive environmental DNA sample these here very bright bands are DNA that's extracted directly from the silver carp these bands here this one this one this one and this one are the positive detections from the water sample that was collected EDA is a tool that we can use for early detection but it will work best in areas where we know that a positive sample really would suggest a live Asian carp and that the genetic material wouldn't be there for any other reason if we're able to find agent carp early enough and the numbers are a few I think our success rate for eradicating them from the system increases greatly preventing car pop ulation is the only way to protect the Great Lakes it's a job that may never end in the Mississippi watershed where all hope seems lost the Asian carp infestation may be solved in a surprisingly simple way stopping Asian carp from taking over the Great Lakes is about more than just blocking waterways there is a real risk that live fish could accidentally be released by humans on the Canadian side of the border those fish might have superpowers but on dry land fighting back are our own super sleuths from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources within the Greater Toronto Area we focus our attention on monitoring the the buying and selling and possessing of invasive species specifically live invasive species any fish or fish product that comes from a freshwater source will go in and will conduct inspections we'll look at the paperwork that type of thing you got a lot of stuff going out today oh yeah quite a bit biggest thing they need to know more you should be ready for the wheat in yep there are four species of Asian carp that cannot be bought sold or possess live we will ensure that wholesalers or markets are aware of the situation and then we will inspect the fish that they have in their inventory so when you got in here any dust this hunk of fresh water the high boots white bass okay we're just going to get the tanks of it here see what you got get down at the bottom on that one I believe that the wholesalers the restaurants the markets they do have a better understanding of the laws and as a result they are working with us and trying hard to be in compliance with the laws of reinforce the fear remains that a live carp could be used to stock a pond and someday escape or that a live unwanted fish could be discarded into the sewer system either way would be like handing over the keys to the Great Lakes certainly there's a concern if live Asian carp ended up in a store there was always a possibility that a store could turn around and sell that fish live and if that were the case there is certainly potential for them to spread throughout the watershed when this water gets warm you got to be careful they get real active when the waters warm that's big head right there nostril to these inspectors the only good carp is a dead one we're looking at a freezer okay so this is dead grass carp this is perfectly legal in a live state obviously this is one of our four invasive species of Asian carp well what I'm looking at here doesn't doesn't alarm me at all this is this is completely legal for them to have this it's something that requires monitoring and supervision but in the markets in the GTA we have not seen a live Asian carp since 2009 we have in in 2012 stop three trucks coming across the border they are all before the courts right now so we certainly still see offenses but not the degree and the volumes of offenses that we saw back in 2005 2060 there are no unified laws in Canada covering the sale of live Asian carp but many provinces and states have banned its sale and transport outright in the United States the carp population is already firmly established but in a town where adversity is no stranger a solution is on the table Peoria Illinois south side mission sits in one of the poorest ZIP codes in the United States the people that we serve on the south side of Peoria are the first people that feel the pains of a bad economy and the last people that feel any sort of recovery the south side of Peoria is a food desert and for those that don't know what that means it means it's a place where the poor cannot receive fresh vegetables and quality food the irony is that in a so-called food desert the poor go hungry when there is a source of free high-quality protein just to kill them either away if we had a reliable way to have our hands on Asian carp each month we would absolutely integrate it into our menu and it could it could feed thousands because our resources are limited we rely mainly on donations have a very limited budget so anytime there's a protein source out there that we can utilize it greatly helps our ministries and I think'll down towards the rib cage it is a very bony fish and the bones are very prevalent all throughout the fillet so it is hard to use like your what a regular fillet a fish bones right now we don't worry about a lot because you're not gonna get them they're all in here they'll come out real easy after you cook them you're going to try the other side the challenge is harvesting the Asian carp and then just the processing of it there needs to be a commercial way of processing it so it can be used readily not a whole lot of yield there is there there's a lot of Labor involved but the little amount of fish you do get off it is very good product three hours northwest in Fulton Illinois is one of the few commercial harvesters of Asian carp in North America when the Asian carp started to diminish the native fishery Schafer's did their homework they saw opportunity and created jobs there's a definite need for cheap protein in the world and this fish is very plentiful very sustainable Karp is considered a trash fish in North America it has a lot of bones in the meat and no young person in America is going to eat fish with bones in it they want a boneless filet white needed filet and other parts of the world people still eat fish with bones in it so that's where our main markets are headed Schafer's chips Asian carp as whole fish all over the world and two ethnic markets in North America to encourage a mainstream domestic market they have created tasty carp based products such as salami hot dogs jerky and carp cakes the most popular right now is compelled a fish and I think fish patties will be our next biggest item that we make out of it this fish could potentially feed a lot of people that are in need in this country as well as other countries it could create a lot of jobs for people that are down and out getting North America to see Asian carp as a sustainable resource maybe a matter of marketing there has never been a fish more in need of a public relations campaign the nation carp I would say that people are universally surprised after they've had Asian carp and then you tell them what it was they had no idea that's what they were eating they would have assumed it to be you know crab cake or or a tilapia it's very good it's not that that's exactly what it is if you can treat the Asian carp as a resource instead of a pariah you could affect change throughout food insecure communities I'd love to see Asian carp available in local grocery stores very cheap and then turn this problem into a tasty solution it's surprising that Asian carp which are thought of as such a curse could turn out to be a blessing Asian carp would not be in North America if humans had not introduced them in the first place it's important to remember that everything's native somewhere and you know these are not evil fish many people would say that the most successful invasive species in the world is a human being the ability to make any environment their own has earn carp the distinction of being a hated but respected aquatic species efforts to control them will cost billions of dollars we are literally staring down the maw of a new invasive species we know it's coming we know how to solve the problem and if we don't take advantage of that it's going to be game over for the great lakes I don't know if people should panic but people should be a concerned and join us in the fight to prevent them from entering the Great Lakes my message to the people that live around the Great Lakes is I don't know how you're gonna get these fish to stop coming up there because they're going to they're going to migrate they're going to go up there if there's any way possible to keep them out of the Great Lakes stop them now I do have kind of a love-hate relationship with these fish I respect the heck out they are amazing fish I just wish they weren't here [Music] you

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 119,547

Rating: 4.7609921 out of 5

Keywords: nature documentary, full documentary, documentary movie, big cats, wildlife documentary, discovery channel, national geographic, natgeo wild, Nature documentaries - topic, Animals - topic, planet earth, david attenborough, Full Animal Documentary, wild animals, wild animal, carpe diem, carpe fish, carpe fish invasion, fly fishing, big fish, river fishing, dry fly fishing, carp fish, carp fish invasion, fishy problem, real wild, real wild channel

Id: KhXLB1b4_eU

Length: 51min 23sec (3083 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2019