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CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald
Believing they would be a good source of food, settlers in Utah Valley introduced carp to Utah Lake 125 years ago.
Little could they have imagined that 125 years later, taxpayers would be spending tens of millions of dollars to get rid of the fish, the population of which has ballooned to 7.5 million, each one adding to the slow destruction of the lake's ecosystem, according to biologists.
In an effort to restore the lake's habitat and save the June sucker, one of the rarest fishes in the world and native only to Utah Lake, experts will hire crews in 2007 to begin removing 1 million carp a year from Utah Lake for seven years -- an effort meant to permanently decimate the population, said Reed Harris of the June Sucker Recovery Program.
What to do with 7 million carp?
Experts are said they hoping "consultants, universities and interested parties" will have an answer. The group is looking for professional ideas with real market potential, Harris said.
....To read the rest go to the Daily Herald's website:
[url "http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/171909/"]http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/171909/[/url]
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Any body up for a big fish (carp) fry ???
might make good cat food. later chuck
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all i can say is fertilizer. i would rather eat big tomatoes than big carp.
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Interesting.... The article says they want to remove 1 million carp a year for 7 years, but does not say how they plan on doing it. I would like to know more about their plan. The carp reproduce so successfully in UL that I don't see how they will keep up. They may reduce the numbers in the short term, but nothing short of a full rotenone treatment (all but impossible) will ever rid UL of carp. The carp simply out-compete every other fish in Utah Lake.
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[#505000]Why not just sell them to those outfits who come fish for them each year to make into fish sticks?[/#505000]
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[#505000]My big concerns with this whole idea are.....[/#505000]
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[#505000]1. What impact will this have on the game fish. Will this reduce the number of forage fish with a major reduction in the number of carp fry each summer? [/#505000]
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[#505000]2. How do they intend to accomplish this. If it was as easy as scooping out 1 million carp a year how come it wasn't done forever ago.[/#505000]
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[#505000]3. I don't see how this will be a long term solution. 1 million carp a year over 7 years with 7.5 million carp in the lake. That leaves 500,000 not counting the fact each year the remaining millions not yet removed will produce billions of eggs. Figure the number of fry who get eaten, and die off and I don't see how they will put a significant dent in the numbers. [/#505000]
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[#505000]4. What is the price tag on what I already see as a failed operation?[/#505000]
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[#505000]Then if the actually are sucessful......[/#505000]
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[#505000]5. Where am I going to find catfish bait?[/#505000]
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[#505000]6. What will I shoot with my bow each spring?[/#505000]
[#505000]7. Will I have to change my handle??[/#505000]
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[#505000]Easiest thing to do is find a carp specific disease (the carp version of whirling disease) and dump it in the lake, and hire crews to skim off the dead! [cool] [/#505000]
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My guess is that they'll use nets. Carp don't spawn their first couple of years, so if they get rid of the spawning adults, it will be a start. Then the walleye can take care of the little ones.
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[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1] [#505000]Quote:1. What impact will this have on the game fish. Will this reduce the number of forage fish with a major reduction in the number of carp fry each summer?
[/#505000][#505000][black]I don't think that it will result in a major reduction in the number of carp fry, just a small reduction.
[/black][/#505000][/size][/black][/font][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1] [#505000]Quote:2. How do they intend to accomplish this. If it was as easy as scooping out 1 million carp a year how come it wasn't done forever ago.[/#505000]
I don't think it's too hard to accomplish, the hard part is finding a viable MARKET for all that carp.
Quote:[/size][/black][/font][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#505000]Then if the actually are sucessful......[/#505000]
I doubt that it will be successful enough. It will only improve the fishery in my opinion.
And as far as HOW they are going to do it? THAT is exactly what they are asking the public right now. They are calling for ideas from the public to hopefully find some entrepenurial type who wants to go into the carp business. [cool]
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[#505000]I've always toyed with the thought and maybe it's a stupid idea ( I get a lot of those), but do like they did in the old west with Coyote ears. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Offer a bounty on the carp for $.25 a fish. For each carp you bring to the Springville DWR office they give you a bright shiny quarter. Doesn't seem like much but look at folks who pick up tin cans. Hell a trash bag full of cans will only get you a few bucks and getting carp can be a lot easier. [/#505000]
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[#505000]At spawn I think you would see masses of teenagers (and the folks who horde and sell white bass by the pick-up truck load)looking for some extra spending cash and some fun with pitch forks, bows, ect... working over the Utah Lake carp population. [/#505000]
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[#505000]If there was a little cash incentive for the general populace I think man would do what he does best and put a serious hurtin on a species. Best part is at 7.5 million carp at $.25 a carp it would only come to a little under $2 million bucks. 2 mill is a pretty small price tag compared to some of the other things they've thought about. Including the junesucker walleye feeding program.[/#505000]
[#505000]Also since you would have to turn them in this would keep the lake shores from being covered in dead carp.
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[#505000]There are a few drawbacks or things that would need to be done to implement my crazy bounty plan.....[/#505000]
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[#505000]1. They would need to watch closer to make sure the carp were taken "legally" (no dynamite, firearms, game fish harmed ect..). Assign a few extra DWR guys to really police Utah Lake during the bounty period. [/#505000]
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[#505000]2. Carp may show up at the DWR office that were collected from other waters. I doubt this would be a huge problem especially with the small overall price tag already, and the problems carp populations cause everywhere. [/#505000]
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[#505000]3. A minimum size requirement would need to be implemented to avoid someone bringing in a trillion 1 inch carp minnows and demanding several hundred dollars. Maybe everything under 1lb would be paid by weight or something.[/#505000]
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[#505000]Last but hardly least grind those buggers up and make some fish food out of them to feed hatchery trout![/#505000]
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[#505000]Damn I'm either a genius or a moron.... I guess the jury is out!! I'm sure some of you will let me know. [ ][/#505000]
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A moron.
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Just kidding Gary! Actually, I think you have a fantastic idea!! The only modification I would make would be to not pay anything for fish that were under 6 inches long or something like that. Leave those ones for the walleye and catfish to munch on. Besides, it's a lot easier to "collect" the bigger ones. If it were schedule during the spawn and the months after, it could bring in a HUGE amount of carp, as well as prevent a lot of them from spawning. Turn that carp into fish mash and make yummy fish sticks to sell back east! YUM YUM!
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I like it. Get paid to fish that is a brilliant idea.
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Great idea...that would make my total take for 2005...about...$1.25...Would I have to count that on my taxes. [  ]
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[#505000]My take would have been about $25 for 2005!![/#505000]
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After watching lundmans post i have an idea.We need to get some seals and train them to eat carp ] If they can take down a 7 foot sturgeon imagine what they could do to a carp.[cool]
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we should just fly a bunch of old guys from eastern europe and asia over. tell them they can keep as many as they can catch. they'll all be gone in a month.
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7.5 million carp.......unbelievable. No wonder I'm always marking fish. You are right though, Carp Punisher, I can already see some redneck dumbA blowin' his arm off with some TNT he got from gramps garage. If there were a "Carp for Cash" (That's my line and I want a cut of the $ [  ]) there would have to be some real presence of DWR officers out there, and when they are done with UL they can patrol all the "other" waters that dont have trout in them.
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Do you really think it would be worth 25 cents to haul a stinky carp all the way to Springville? If I filled the whole bed of my pickup I doubt it would pay for my fuel to haul them if I were at the north end of the lake. Not to mention as soon as it warms up that would be a stinky mess. What would the DWR do with all the dead carp people dropped off?
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[#505000]Well for you it might not be worth it. For me it might not be worth it. Saying that I don't find it worth my while to pick up soda cans to recycle either. I don't find the return on the aluminum to be worth my time and the effort; However there are those who really go after it and they do it enough to make a difference. We've all seen these people picking through the trash for them and not just bums. As a police officer I see "normal citizens" with a stick in the early evening poking through the car wash trash cans looking for cans. We've all also seen the ethnic types at Utah Lake loading pick up trucks full of white bass to sell. I very much doubt they get much more than a $.25 return for each fish.[/#505000]
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[#505000]What number of people have a blast bow fishing for carp for kicks and giggles with no monetary renumeration for their time and effort other than a good time? I do but if you wanted to pay me a few buck to do it I would probably do it more.[/#505000]
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[#505000]I think the big numbers of people who would go after this would be the "can people" types. I think teenagers looking to have some fun and who want some extra spending cash would. [/#505000]
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[#505000]If people not wanting to transport them is a huge issue have a few DWR guys/college age surveyor type staff at collection points at popular lake locations at peak times. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Frankly I could see a lot more people actually fishing with hook and line targeting just carp. [/#505000]
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[#505000]The bottom line is this isn't meant to be a way to pay off a mortgage or a replacement for anyone's income. It's more of an incentive to really go after the carp. I think the majority of us ignore them for the most part. We target them from time to time to replenish a bait supply, or we accidentally hook one now and then. If we targeted them like we do cats, walleye, and whitebass. I think their numbers may be more in line with those of the game fish and at managable numbers they are no longer a problem. [/#505000]
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[#505000]As far as disposal goes that I believe is a simple problem. Animal shelters across the state kill thousands of sick or unwanted animals each year. Where do they go? Could the carp just as easily go there? We're not talking about getting rid of nuclear fuel or toxic chemicals. [/#505000]
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[#505000]For a long time here in Utah County a pet food outfit called Khuni's would take all the dead critters from around the area and make them into pet food. Whether they did this for free or paid for the dead critters I don't know but I imagine there are a lot of similar places that would love a large supply of "fresh" (or not so fresh as the case may be) meat to process. If they are willing to pay a few bucks for each 100 pounds all the better. Money back to the DWR. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Just the other night I was watching Discovery Channel and saw what they did with the leftover game fish from the large commercial ocean operations. They basically ground em up into a paste cooked em some and made em into fish pellets to sell to commercial fish farms. [/#505000]
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[#505000]If there aren't places like these I don't see why they couldn't bury them in a landfill. Carp are amazingly biodegradable so in a few months they would have returned to mother earth anyway.[/#505000]
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[#505000]If $.25 isn't enough of an incentive if it was even kicked up to at $1.00 a fish 7 million is a very small price tag compared to a lot of other options that have been considered.[/#505000]
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[#505000]The beauty of the whole thing is if no carp are coming in... no money is going out.....[/#505000]
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[#505000]"Carp for Ca$h" [cool][/#505000]
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Kuhnis is still in business. They just moved their operation to south of Nephi so they wouldn't stink out Provo and Springville anymore!! [cool]
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To bad the carp cant be used for chum for the salt water fishermen.I know chum is heavily used for salt water fishing.You could go through 100 pounds of chum in a day very easily in the ocean. And they have to go out and search for bait and catch it and that takes a lot of money.Maybe if they could transport it frozen from utah to the coast for processing it would be cheaper for them but who knows.A truck could haul a limit 40 tons a trip of carp.Maybe that will make a difference.There is never enough chum to go around.Also it would help the fishermen if the cost went down significantly.Cheaper prices more chum to sell.[  ]
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