Saving Seafood

Cancer Spreading Through Louisiana Waterways Could Be Eradicated By Mouth

March 2, 2022 — A silent and deadly cancer is spreading throughout the bayous and rivers of Louisiana; as well as Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri all the way to Illinois, Minnesota and the gates of the Great Lakes. Asian carp has overtaken the Mississippi River System threatening the ecosystem, as well as multi-million dollar recreational and commercial fishing industries.

“All our rivers and bayous are connected to the Mississippi, and they all have Asian Carp,” said Baton Rouge Chef Philippe Parola, who for more than 10-years has made it his mission to find a solution to the ever-widening problem.  “Our problem is nobody really cares and there is no way to eradicate them.”

These insatiable giants were first imported in the 1970s to remove algae from ponds, but were displaced by flooding and spilled into the waterways where they now crowd out favorites like catfish, shrimp and buffalo fish.

Eye On Asian Carp

The Bayou Chef has had his eye on the Asian carp situation since Hurricane Katrina and he is not been shy about expressing his frustration over the slow bureaucracy of addressing the serious threat to the ecosystem.  He feels it is imperative to be proactive in handling the problem and has come up with what he feels is a solution.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

Invasive Asian carp getting a new name, image makeover to draw more foodies, fishing fans

February 9, 2021 — Care for a plate of slimehead? How about some orange roughy?

It’s the same fish, but one sounds much more palatable than the other. The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service gave the slimehead a rebranding in the late 1970s in an effort to make the underused fish more marketable.

Now, Illinois officials and their partners want to give the invasive Asian carp threatening the Great Lakes a similar makeover. The goal: To grow the fish’s image as a healthy, delicious, organic, sustainable food source — which will, in turn, get more fishermen removing more tons of the fish from Illinois rivers just outside of Lake Michigan.

Markets such as pet food, bait and fertilizer have expanded the use of invasive Asian carp in recent years. But “it’s been hard to get the human consumption part of this because of the four-letter word: carp,” said Kevin Irons, assistant chief of fisheries for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

A full-on media blitz is coming later this year to change that. The proposed new name for the fish is being kept tightly under wraps for a big rollout in June, prior to the Boston Seafood Show in mid-July. But other aspects of the “The Perfect Catch” campaign will point out that the invasive Asian carp species — silver, bighead, grass and black carp — are flaky, tasty, organic, sustainable, low in mercury and rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids.

“To us in America, we think of carp as a bottom-feeding, muddy-tasting fish, which it is sometimes,” said Dirk Fucik, owner of Dirk’s Fish and Gourmet Shop in Chicago, who has had success with occasional serving of Asian carp to customers and is participating in the rebranding effort.

Read the full story at the Chicago Sun Times

Turning an invasive problem into a bait solution

October 25, 2018 — With concerns growing over a likely bait shortage in the lobster industry in Maine and Canada due to a drastic cut in the upcoming season’s herring quota, Nova Scotia resident Patrick Swim has a possible solution. Swim thinks he can solve the bait shortage by harvesting an invasive species.

Silver carp is one of the four species of the invasive Asian carp (silver, bighead, grass, and black) that have placed the Great Lakes water system at risk. Carp were brought to North America in the 1970s as a biological control of algae, plants, and snails in aquaculture sites. Subsequent flooding allowed them to escape their pens, which created a new problem for the environment and marine life. A mature meter-long carp can weight 40 kilograms and consume up to 40 percent of their body weight each day, which puts stress on resources for native species. They also reproduce rapidly.

Swim was intrigued by reports that silver carp are so disturbed by noise and vibration caused by boat motors that they jump up to three meters out of the water. While looking at this flying fish phenomenon, Swim, whose family have long fished lobster on Canada’s Cape Sable Island, had an idea to harvest the carp, freeze it, cut it into pieces and sell it as a cheap bait to East Coast lobster fishermen.

In the past decades, Asian carp have replaced native fish species in areas of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Their advance towards the Great Lakes has spurred the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to spend tens of millions of dollars annually trying to contain them. So far, electro-magnetic fields and fish fences have prevented all but a few carp from entering the lakes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Senate allocates $11 million to prevent spread of Asian Carp

August 14, 2018 — An Interior Appropriations bill passed in the U.S. Senate aims to help scientists curtail the spread of invasive Asian Carp, particularly into the Great Lakes.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday the bill contains $11 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s ongoing effort to halt Asian carp movement along the Mississippi and Ohio river basins and prevent it from entering the Great Lakes.

“The invasive and destructive Asian carp are no friend of the Great Lakes, and we need to do all we can to keep them out and protect our wildlife and Great Lakes,” Sen. Schumer said in a statement.

Fish and Wildlife Service scientists have spent decades researching and deploying various tools to impede Asian carp from traveling into new waters and outcompeting native fish.

Todd J. Turner, Midwest assistant regional director of fisheries for the service, said people imported Asian carp to eat the algae in their catfish ponds, but flooding and accidental releases, sent the non-native fish into the Mississippi River system. It has since spread to other river systems. Some populations have reached as close as 50 to 100 miles from Lake Michigan, although Mr. Turner said that hasn’t changed much in the recent decade.

As adept filter feeders, Mr. Turner said Asian carp can outcompete juvenile native fish species like bass and catfish for food like microplankton and zoo plankton. The silver carp, which has sensitive hearing, also threatens boaters because it jumps in the air when startled by loud noises and can strike someone in the head.

Read the full story at the Watertown Daily Times

Bipartisan effort to fight invasive species with new bill

July 18, 2018 — When it comes to invasive species damaging New York’s lakes, forestry and gardens, Rep. Elise Stefanik and U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand found some common ground.

The two lawmakers last week reintroduced the Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act to protect wildlife from invasive species such as Asian carp or the Emerald Ash Borer, which have wreaked havoc in lakes and deteriorated ash trees in New York’s forests. Gillibrand, a Democrat, and Stefanik, a center-right Willsboro Republican, brought the bill into Congress.

If passed, the act would grant the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service more oversight on invasive species regulation, and would bar such wildlife from entering the country through any means, including being sold here.

Read the full story at the Times Union

Federal Report Calls For $275 Million To Stop Asian Carp

August 8, 2017 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed spending $275 million to upgrade defenses against an invading force. The enemy? A fish. Specifically, Asian carp that are threatening to break through to the Great Lakes.

In June, a live Asian silver carp was caught in the Illinois Waterway just 9 miles from Lake Michigan. Scientists fear that if the voracious carp establish themselves in the Great Lakes, they could devastate the region’s $7 billion fishing industry.

The Corps of Engineers wants to upgrade the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill., on the Des Plaines River. The waterway is a link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, where Asian carp are already a big problem. The Associated Press writes, “The Brandon Road complex is considered a bottleneck where defenses could be strengthened against fish swimming upstream toward openings to the lake at Chicago.”

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

Floating factory would process invasive Asian carp

December 28, 2016 — MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Leaping from rivers and lakes like aquatic projectiles and ravaging the food base of native fish, Asian carp are loathed by outdoors enthusiasts and state wildlife officials alike for being not just a nuisance, but a threat to boating and fishing industries worth $2.9 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively, in Tennessee.

Enter Joe Gillas. He sees the invasive fish as an opportunity.

Gillas’ company, Riverine Fisheries International, plans to moor a factory fishing vessel at the Port of Cates Landing, located on the Mississippi River near Tiptonville, Tenn., about 100 miles north of Memphis. The nearly 350-foot-long boat would process Asian carp caught in the Mississippi and other rivers and lakes into food products to be exported to some 20 countries, including China and Russia.

“I think there’s a good business model here,” said Gillas, 53, who was born and raised in Alaska and has fished all over the world. “I think we can do something good and make money at the same time.”

The Corps of Engineers early next year likely will approve the company’s application for a permit under the Rivers & Harbors Act authorizing the mooring of the vessel, said corps biologist and project manager Randy Clark.

Riverine Fisheries is an $18 million venture that includes “catcher” vessels that would help harvest the fish and a warehouse, logistics center and administrative headquarters in nearby Hickman, Ky. Gillas said the company could hire more than 100 people and begin harvesting and processing carp in February.

Read the full story at USA Today