How about a 100 pound fish hurtling themselves out of your pond directly at
your head every time you turn on the lights?

Here's some quotes:

"they are often seen breaking the water surface many meters ahead and along
the sides of our electrofishing boats. Asian carp have often entered our
boats without the use of dip nets. In fact, many of our staff members have
been hit multiple times by large jumping fish."

"Illinois residents along the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois rivers have
been subjected to a strange sight in the past year-flying carp. It's not
unusual for bighead and silver carp to land in boats, occasionally bouncing
off shocked passengers, injuring drivers and, in some cases, causing damage
to the boats. These carp have a habit of jumping when disturbed..."

Seems like a bad choice of a pond pet to me, but these things are in the
Mississippi River valley now and headed for a river or lake near you. See
the recent news article below from the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper
(http://www.nola.com/news/ataglance/t.../1056346110244
140.xml ).


Michael Fermanis
New Orleans, Louisiana USA (Remove the RICE to reply)
================================================== ===========



CARPetbaggers

The appearance of several species of Asian carp in Louisiana waters has
scientists worried and sparked questions over who will supervise potentially
invasive species


Monday June 23, 2003
By Aaron Kuriloff

The 15 large, unfamiliar fish that showed up in Harry Roberts' nets along
the Mississippi River near Kenner last month weren't the catfish that pay
his rent. And when a local biologist identified them, Roberts became worried
about more than his lost catch.

According to the Tulane University scientist, Hank Bart, the commercial
fisherman had netted a school of bighead Asian carp, dun natives of Chinese
rivers known for their huge size, their voracious consumption of foods
essential to local freshwater species -- and their habit of leaping from the
murky depths toward motion and lights, and, sometimes, boaters unlucky
enough to be traveling the opposite direction.

Four species of Asian carp -- bighead, silver, grass and black -- have
spread north along the river since escaping from fish farms in Mississippi
and Arkansas more than a decade ago. But until recently, scientists had
found few south of Arkansas.

"I done caught a little bit of everything out of that darned river, but I
ain't never caught one of these things," Roberts said...

Flying fish

"It's very disconcerting that (carp) populations are increasing," said Mark
McElroy, a biologist and member of the governor's Invasive Species Task
Force.

Asian carp caught the attention of Jerald Horst, a biologist with the
Louisiana State University AgCenter's Sea Grant program, several years ago
when an 8-pound specimen leapt toward his flashlight "like a huge silver
bullet" and hit him at high speed in the temple.

"Biologists fear these things are going to eat huge amounts of plankton
important for the larval stages of native commercial and sport fish," he
said. "But the other fearsome thing about this fish is personal
endangerment."

In central Louisiana, a thriving colony of invasive carp has boaters
avoiding the Boeuf River after sunset, said Benny Champlain, who runs a net
manufacturing business in Jonesville.

"You don't want to run the Boeuf at night very fast," he said. "These things
get up to 50 or 60 pounds, and they can jump six feet out of the water. At
20 or 30 miles per hour, one of those things will knock you out of the
boat."

Boaters in Illinois learned that lesson last summer, when an exploding
population of Asian carp made headlines and wildlife managers began
constructing a $7 million electric barrier in the Illinois River to keep the
fish from moving into the Great Lakes.

But the fish have proved very resilient. Since their escape from farms,
where the plankton-eaters are used as low-cost natural cleaning systems
before slaughter, they've migrated steadily north.

State biologists say they began turning up in Louisiana, which has
restricted their use in farms, about five years ago.

With more than 64 million acres of freshwater river and bayou vulnerable to
the fish, and farmers in neighboring states already cultivating tilapia and
Asian carp, the state has almost no reason to restrict their commercial use,
said Greg Lutz, an aquaculture specialist at LSU....

Roberts caught a new batch of bighead carp Friday.

Louisiana residents have only one real weapon in the fight against the
invaders, said Bart, curator of fishes at the Tulane University Natural
History Museum, as he preserved a specimen for insertion in the collection.

"If we're going to live with these things, we better start eating them,"
Bart said. "It's an ecological last resort."

.. . . . . . .

MLF posted "If we're going to live with these things, we better start eating
them,"
Bart said. "It's an ecological last resort.",

Black'nd Carp. Put a Cajun chef on TV,
fry up a mess of these and import them to
NY for $50 a plate!


k30a

"K30a" wrote:
MLF posted "If we're going to live with these things, we better start
eating
them," Bart said. "It's an ecological last resort.",

Black'nd Carp. Put a Cajun chef on TV,
fry up a mess of these and import them to
NY for $50 a plate!


My idea exactly (of course, that's how they got into our ecosystem in the
first place). But now that they're in it, I say net 'em, gut 'em, and fry
'em.

My only reservation is that they are actually close relatives of the fish we
keep in our ponds - koi and goldfish are just fancy carp.


Michael Fermanis
New Orleans, Louisiana USA (Remove the RICE to reply)
================================================== ===========

"MLF" wrote:


"K30a" wrote:
MLF posted "If we're going to live with these things, we better start
eating
them," Bart said. "It's an ecological last resort.",

Black'nd Carp. Put a Cajun chef on TV,
fry up a mess of these and import them to
NY for $50 a plate!


My idea exactly (of course, that's how they got into our ecosystem in the
first place). But now that they're in it, I say net 'em, gut 'em, and fry
'em.

Actually, I believe they were originally used in aquaculture in the So,
when the farms flooded.

Illinois is fighting the asian carp, the big mouth carp, the round goby,
and others, as they meet, either coming up the Missippi, or down via the
Chicago rivers. 4 different types of foreign carp.

My only reservation is that they are actually close relatives of the fish we
keep in our ponds - koi and goldfish are just fancy carp.

Yep, when they found a bighead in one of the lagoons, they shocked the
lagoon, to see if their were anymore, and among the fish reported to
have been replaced was "koi carp" as well as "common carp", and a third,
non-problematical carp.

The thought was that someone bought 2 live ones, one to eat, and one to
"give back to nature", and let it go. Fortunately, the lagoon isn't
connected to anything else.

"K30a" wrote in message
...
MLF posted "If we're going to live with these things, we better start
eating
them,"
Bart said. "It's an ecological last resort.",

Black'nd Carp. Put a Cajun chef on TV,
fry up a mess of these and import them to
NY for $50 a plate!

My recipe for carp:

One shoe box
Baste carp in butter, garlic, salt, pepper
Place carp in bo
Place box i oven
Cook for 30 minutes at 350
Remove box from oven
Remove carp from box
Eat box.