Carp for sale? IDFG considers paying fishermen to remove carp in Lake Lowell – Idaho Press-Tribune
© 2011 Idaho Press-Tribune
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game might pay commercial fishermen to remove an estimated 5 million pounds of invasive carp from Lake Lowell. The carp could be sold as food in China or India, or ground into fertilizer, according to regional fisheries biologist Joe Kozfkay.
At last count, about 1.3 million carp occupied the reservoir near Nampa, crowding out more popular sport fish, such as bass, crappie and bluegill. Carp are also responsible for muddying the water and causing algae blooms, harming aquatic species, Kozfkay said.
Fish and Game has considered options for removing carp, including an aquatic pesticide called rotenone, and the current preferred method is subsidized fishing, he said.
Few people in the U.S. eat carp, because it’s bony and considered a “trash fish,” but it could be sold to India and China, where it’s a popular dish. Further, rendering plants in the U.S. buy carp to make fertilizer and fish meal.
But carp is no cash cow. To make large-scale carp fishing at Lake Lowell profitable, Fish and Game would need to offer subsidies of about 15 cents a pound, Kozfkay said.
At that rate, carp removal would cost about $750,000 over several years. Funding might be available through federal grants for improving fisheries or wetlands. It could take three to five years for funding to come through, if it does at all, he said.
Economic benefits
With fewer carp and more desirable fish, Lake Lowell could rise in popularity as a fishing destination, Kozfkay said. C.J. Strike Reservoir, which isn’t infested with carp, attracts about four times as many anglers and generates 20 times the economic activity as Lake Lowell, he noted.
“The economic value of a fishery like that is just astounding. … It could do a lot more for the people of the valley if it had more desirable fish species,” he said.
L.D. Read of Howard’s Tackle Shoppe in Nampa agrees.
He said that the overwhelming majority of the 100-200 anglers he serves each day buy tackle for warm water species such as crappie and bass.
“When other fish are spawning, carp eat the eggs. They also stir the water so bad, they get it so chocolatey brown with silt it hurts the bass, crappie, blue gill and catfish. Their eggs don’t incubate properly,” he said.
Read suggested that in addition to opening Lowell for commercial carp fishing, the Department of Fish and Game should promote bow hunting of carp to keep the numbers down.
History
Carp were introduced to the U.S. from the Eurasian continent in 1877. At the time, carp were considered beneficial — an edible fish that could proliferate in murky water. However, as carp spread across the country it soon became apparent they were crowding other species.
Lake Lowell was constructed in 1909, and the Department of Fish and Game began looking at ways to cut the carp population as early as 1955. In the 1960s, Fish and Game managed to kill off the majority of the carp using rotenone, and other fish populations rebounded.
But in the 1990s, a prolonged drought harmed other species, while carp thrived.
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