The Hungry Shall Inherit the Earth

by Ben Carmichael  |  April 1, 2008  |  More By Ben Carmichael

As a fisherman, I've come to distrust stories of large, leaping fish. I've simply heard too many to believe them all.

Perhaps this is why, when I read the story of Asian carp invading the Illinois River back in 2002, it didn't stick. But this YouTube video, which has been circulating amongst friends, is one that's difficult to forget. For the most striking image, fast-forward to 2:30.

At the moment they shock the water, what seems like hundreds of carp explode out of the surface and high into the air. It's shocking. And a bit supernatural.

How is this possible?

Here's the story as I know it.

Back in the 70s, southern catfish farmers introduced two species of Asian Carp -- the bighead and silver -- to clean out their ponds of algae, plankton and other "suspended matter." Floods then washed the carp out of the ponds and into the Mississippi in the 80s. From there, they've been swimming upstream.

What made them so perfect for the farmers has made them so prolific on the Illinois River. Combine the fact that they can eat half their body weight a day, mostly in phytoplankton and zooplankton, with the fact that they weigh up to 100 lbs, and they're consuming massive quantities of natural resources from the lower rungs of the food chain. As Jerry Rasmussen says in the video, "They go right to the bottom, and take the bottom out."

Add to this penchant for profligacy their suitability to the Illinois -- it being similar to their Asian habitats -- and they have blanketed the river. The video cites the statistic that nearly 9 out of every 10 fish in the river is a carp -- not all Asian, but still, by no means biologically diverse.

What, if anything, can you do to stop such a fish?

For one, federal and state agencies have erected an electric fence to try and keep them out of the Great Lakes, and Canada, with some reports of success.

My favorite suggestion comes from this NPR story: "Can't beat ‘em? Eat ‘em." Commercial fisherman have been feeding a small, but growing market for them, while Illinois Senator Mike Jacobs wants to see them served in prison.

"Chilean Sea Bass wasn't always known as Chilean Sea Bass," Jacobs notes. "There was a time it was known as a Patagonian Toothfish, and people wouldn't eat it."

His suggested name-change? "I'm from Rock Island, so I'm thinking of 'Rock Island Sole,'" Jacobs muses. "Schafer Fisheries is near Savanna, [Ill.,] so Savanna Sole might work, too."

But then, the market for Chilean Sea Bass is famously troubled, and the natural populations seriously strained. Is that really what we want?