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Nearly 50 partners are now organized to battle one of the most urgent, wide-ranging and complex environmental challenges of the day 鈥 the threat of invasive carp. We at the bet365下载ios are proud to serve a lead role in providing grants and working shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners in the field, office and lab to manage invasive carp.
Through some of the largest conservation partnerships in North America, we are carrying out more than 80 projects across the waterscape of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins focused on four species of invasive carp: silver, bighead, grass and black. These projects represent a nearly $70-million-per-year coordinated, cost-shared effort. Even so, this is a small investment compared to the cost to our quality of life of further proliferation of invasive carp.
Protecting American values
Communities up and down the Mississippi River and its tributaries know about the destruction invasive carp can bring. When invasive carp become abundant, native fisheries are destroyed and the whole web of aquatic life is disrupted. In the most infested areas, families are deprived of their favorite on-the-water pastimes and popular sportfishing destinations no longer lure anglers from afar. Commercial industries and outdoor tourism businesses can lose their means to make a living. The impacts of invasive carp vary from place to place, but in every location their growing presence means our waterways will gradually lose their vitality.
Aligning against the threat
It all started about 50 years ago when invasive carp first entered the lower Mississippi River, multiplied rapidly and gradually spread into tributaries, lakes and reservoirs. They surged west into the Arkansas, Red and White Rivers, south into the delta region, northeast into the Ohio River, east and south into the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers and northwest into the Missouri River. As they moved north up the Mississippi, they also spread into the Illinois River, where the upper reach in the Chicago area waterway connects to Lake Michigan.
Given the vast expanse of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, by the 2000s it seemed possible invasive carp could someday dominate the waterscape of the whole 31-state Mississippi River basin 鈥 and eventually the Great Lakes. State-led invasive carp management evolved into what is now an unprecedented level of state, federal and bi-national collaboration across much of North America. Today, natural resource management agencies are organized into formal geographic partnerships to most effectively manage invasive carp throughout six sub-basins of the Mississippi River as well as the Great Lakes basin.
Over the last 15 years, the U.S. Congress has recognized invasive carp as a major threat to the environment, outdoor recreation and our economic health by providing significant infusions of funding to support states and other partners. Federal grant programs in support of state-led invasive carp management originated as part of two broader legislative actions: first the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative starting in 2010 and secondly the Water Resources Reform and Development Act starting in 2014.
With these investments from Congress, partners are trying to hold the line against invasive carp advancement and reduce the destructiveness where they are already established. Together we continually gain new knowledge and potential applications that help us better manage invasive carp and other aquatic invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species .
Leveraging for advantage
Invasive carp management varies among different locations and by species, but there are three main components to our collective efforts:
- Conducting targeted mass removal efforts to reduce the abundance of invasive carp populations, decreasing the risk of expansion and inhibiting reproductive success
- Developing deterrent technologies and barriers to block or impede invasive carp movement
- Ongoing monitoring, including in areas invasive carp haven鈥檛 yet reached, to inform management strategies and detect their spread to new areas before they can become established.
Mass removal efforts take place in several states with the help of commercial fishers, with some of the more intensive activities taking place in Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, while efforts are growing in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri. On the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, for example, partners working with commercial fishers are now removing about 14 million pounds of invasive carp annually. States are using a variety of harvest incentive programs to increase participation in removal.
Different technologies are being tested as deterrents, especially at lock and dam sites, to find out more about what can discourage invasive carp movement upstream. These include electric currents, bubble curtains, acoustic or sound waves, lights and carbon dioxide. Partners are also evaluating the use of barriers to block invasive carp movement in some areas. This includes assessing existing infrastructure鈥檚 potential to block movement and constructing new barriers to block high-risk pathways.
Partners are working together on-the-water to conduct monitoring, including in areas invasive carp have not yet reached to try to keep it that way. Widespread sampling helps us detect new invasive carp movement early on so we can intervene to prevent their establishment. We use eDNA sampling 鈥 or environmental DNA 鈥 as an early detection tool and to help guide priorities for where to sample further with more traditional fishing gears like nets and electrofishing. We also use radio telemetry techniques where we implant individual invasive carp with tags that allow us to track their movement. This technology, as well as hydroacoustics, gives us important information on invasive carps鈥 life cycle, abundance, congregating habits and movement.
All the while, we are building better processes for coordination, information-sharing and project evaluation. This ensures we make the best decisions about mass removal, deterrents and barriers, ongoing monitoring and any new efforts that may help us gain further advantage and improve our results.
Eradicating invasive species is expensive, time intensive and almost always impossible in large, open aquatic ecosystems. But our collaborative efforts offer the best hope for preventing the further spread of invasive carp and restoring at least some of the natural bounty we have lost.
