# Asian Carp in Minnesota



## walranger5 (May 1, 2005)

Asian Carp are one Dam and lock away from getting into Lake Superior, if they haven't already. Like most places where Asian Carp are now found, in Minnesota they found one in Lake Pepin several years ago, got some press, but not much else. Minnesota rejected putting an electric barrier in the Mississippi, because "long term it would do no good". Now they have Asian carp. They got past 5 regular dams the back way behind Wisconsin. Perhaps if we do more studies? It is very hard for an invasive fish to take over a place already occupied, lack of predators they say leaves an ecosystem open to invasion, the proofs going on right now, with invasive species that dont grow too big like Asian Carp. So we already know what's going to happen, can't say we didn't know they were coming, we have no excuse for letting it happen. Some special interests have a lot of clout, (politics) the Catfish farmers "clout" delayed any real action against the Asian Carp, and now we literally have billions of carp to deal with. Even tho they took 20 million pounds of Asian Carp out of Illinois last year, they're still increasing, 23 other states have them as well. Nature doesn't care how much "clout" you have or how selfish you are, from Natures point of view, The Asian Carp have all the "clout" and only nature can take it away.


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## cabledad (Dec 8, 2010)

Being from Texas I have to say I would rather have hogs rather than Silver Carp. Good luck on a bad problem.Hope they don't come down here.Chuck


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## walranger5 (May 1, 2005)

We are not at risk of having too many native fish, there is no danger of having too many native fish. If we ever did,(long time out) just increase the limit, versus trick people to eat asian carp. Thanks for your post Chuck.


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## Maberhoth (Aug 24, 2011)

Like rabbits in Australia or starlings . . . probably true that there's no way to stop them. We have a global economy and one of the things that doesn't get a lot of attention is what that does in terms of non-human species migration. The catfish farmers just speed up the process, it seems to me. Are they good for anything? The Chinese eat a lot of them.


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## walranger5 (May 1, 2005)

We can stop them, we have several native predators for them, we need to only make sure they survive thier spawn attempts ( now disrupted by invasive species) and they'll do the rest.


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## walranger5 (May 1, 2005)

They just posted a study asiancarp.org, when asian carp hatch they swim vertically right away. All fish with a gas bladder have to do this, or they die, common knowledge but we just payed for another in a long list of studies, we don't need. It's not that they're are stupid, it's how stupid they think we are. Regardless, this was done because of the length of river required thing. When or where they hatch is not the issue, whether or not they get eaten after they hatch is the point. Unless they hatch when the alewives are in to spawn, but thats only close to the lake, currently asian carp are pretty safe. I'm at the point that I don't care if I ever see a salmon or trout again.


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