There is no doubt that the commercial fishing industry in the Great Lakes region employs more than 800,000 people, but is threatened by the invasive Asian Carp – despite continued efforts to keep the fish out of the region’s lakes. Chad Isaak, who has fished the Illinois River for 27 years, says these Asian Carp are the plague.
He seeks catfish and buffalo fish, tastier and more marketable species found in lakes and rivers like the Illinois River. But more and more Asian Carp are edging out the populations of those native fish species, and keep finding their way into Isaak’s nets. Isaak told that to catch catfish and buffalo, one has to throw two to three thousand pounds of Asian Carp back to get the fish that they need.
According to Isaak the fellow fishermen are casting their nets to drive the Asian Carp out of the water. Gary Lutterbie is a fish biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He is teamed up with Isaak to track and weigh the amount of fish they are bringing in to help the DNR better understand the scale of the Asian Carp problem. Lutterbie also said that the main of the project is to harvest the Asian Carp before they get to the fish barrier to reduce the numbers so there is less chance of any Asian Carp getting past the barrier.
The fish they take out of the water here will not be served as food. A fishery in Northwest Illinois has agreed to take in the Asian Carp to process them as fertilizer. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed an agreement with China to export 14 million kilograms of Asian Carp per year. Now Isaak says there needs to be better infrastructure in place to support the harvest of the invasive species.
