Bighead caught in St. Croix underscores urgency around Asian carp

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Bighead caught in St. Croix underscores urgency around Asian carp

The discovery late last week of another Asian carp at the mouth of the St. Croix River underscores the need to move ahead with efforts to stop their spread, according to officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

On Thursday, April 19, commercial fishermen working near Prescott, Wis., netted a 30-pound bighead carp from the St. Croix River where it flows into the Mississippi. One of several nonnative species of Asian carp that can cause serious ecological problems, bighead carp have been working their way north in the Mississippi River.

Thursday's catch was the second time this year Asian carp have been found by commercial fishermen in Minnesota waters. In March, a bighead and a silver carp were netted on the Mississippi River near Winona. Last April, another bighead was taken from the St. Croix near Prescott. While no established populations of bighead or silver carp are known to exist in Minnesota, environmental DNA (eDNA) testing last year suggests the fish may be more common in Twin Cities segments of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers than either agency or commercial netting have been able to confirm.

"This latest discovery ? the third in the last year ? underscores the urgency surrounding Asian carp," said Steve Hirsch, director of DNR's Division of Ecological and Water Resources. "These invaders have huge potential to wreak havoc on Minnesota's fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, so we need to do everything we can to stop them from spreading, and we need to do it now."

Hirsch said the highest priority action now is for Congress to authorize closure of the lock at Upper St. Anthony Falls. Bills to that effect have been introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Keith Ellison, with other members of Minnesota's congressional delegation as co-sponsors. Those bills also would increase federal support for Asian carp control efforts in the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which has until now been limited to the Great Lakes.

As part of an Asian carp control plan, the DNR also is working on several other measures to halt or slow their spread:

    Obtain funds for a carp barrier at Lock and Dam #1 in Minneapolis.
    Continue eDNA monitoring and increase contract netting by commercial fishing operators.
    Do a vulnerability assessment to evaluate the risk Asian carp pose to Minnesota waters statewide.
    Support research to develop control techniques.
    Restore habitat for native fish species to increase ecosystem resiliency in the face of invading carp.

Populations of bighead and silver carp are established in the Mississippi River and its tributaries downstream of Dubuque, Iowa. Bighead carp can weigh up to 110 pounds and silver carp, which leap from the water when disturbed, can grow up to 60 pounds. They are voracious eaters, capable of consuming 5 to 20 percent of their body weight each day. They feed on algae and other microscopic organisms, often outcompeting native fish for food. Scientists believe Asian carp could severely disrupt the aquatic ecosystems of Minnesota waters.

More information about Asian carp is available on the DNR's website at www.dnr.state.mn.us/asian-carp/index.html.
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DNR offers 12 parcels of land for sale

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will offer 12 parcels of land for sale at public auction May 30 at 11 a.m. in the DNR's Central office, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155. Registration begins at 10:30 am.

Parcels are located in the northern portion of the state including Aitkin, Crow Wing, Cook, Hubbard and St. Louis counties. While some parcels have been offered before, values are reflecting the change in the real estate market and may be at lower prices than previously offered.

Additional information regarding the land sales and terms and conditions can be found at www.dnr.state.mn.us/lands_minerals/landsale/index.html.

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Bighead and silver carp discovered in Pool 2 of Mississippi River

Commercial fishermen under contract by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources netted two adult invasive carp in Pool 2 of the Mississippi River in the Cottage Grove area on Thursday, July 17.

One was a bighead carp that weighed approximately 40 pounds. The other was a silver carp – silver carp are the ones that leap from the water when disturbed – that weighed about 20 pounds.

Pool 2 is the portion of the Mississippi River above the dam at Hastings and extends upstream to the Ford Dam. Backwater lakes included are Baldwin Lake, River Lake, Spring Lake, Mooers Lake and Grey Cloud Slough.

Bighead and silver carp had not been found this far north in the Mississippi River. Until now, bighead carp had not been detected above the mouth of the St. Croix River near Prescott, Wis.; silver carp had not been detected above Pool 5A near Winona.

“The fish were caught as part of our invasive carp detection program,” said Brad Parsons, DNR regional fisheries manager. “This is disappointing but not entirely unexpected.” Parsons said while it’s unknown how long these fish were in Pool 2 it is known that invasive carp migrate upstream during high water conditions. “Such conditions existed for many weeks this year," he said.

Parsons said the discovery of these fish does not necessarily mean a breeding population of invasive carp exists within Pool 2. Still, he said both fish were females that contained eggs. “That’s concerning,” he said. “Invasive carp pose a threat to our native fisheries, water recreation and ecosystems.”

The DNR will continue its invasive carp sampling efforts next week in an effort to determine if more or smaller invasive carp are in the Grey Cloud Slough area. They will do this by setting additional gill nets and trap nets that are designed to catch smaller fish. The sampling nets used by commercial fisherman catch larger fish.

The DNR has been intensively sampling the Minnesota, St. Croix and Mississippi rivers for more than two years to assess the presence of all life stages of invasive carp. It is increasing sampling efforts in extreme southern Minnesota later this year (Pools 6 and .

Silver and bighead carp are two of four species of invasive carp threatening the Mississippi River and other native ecosystems. They can grow to 60 pounds, and they impact the base of the food chain by consuming large amounts of plankton that native fish also rely on.

Populations of bighead and silver carp are established in the Mississippi River and its tributaries downstream of Pool 16 in Iowa. Bighead carp have been found in Lake Pepin and the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, and as far north as the mouth of the St. Croix in Prescott, Wis. But there is no indication bighead or silver carp are reproducing in the Minnesota waters of the Mississippi or St. Croix rivers.

The DNR continues to take a multi-pronged approach to managing Asian carp including:

Monitoring for invasive carp by using targeted surveying and contracted commercial fishing.
Partnering with the University of Minnesota’s Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center, which is researching ways to prevent the spread and to manage populations of invasive carp.
Improvements to the Coon Rapids Dam to make it a better fish barrier.
This discovery of invasive carp highlights the importance of recently passed federal legislation that will close the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock by June 2015.

The agency maintains that this is the best approach to keeping invasive carp out of the upper Mississippi River watershed. Gov. Mark Dayton has been a strong supporter of closing the lock.

For more information on invasive carp in Minnesota, visit
www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasive-carp/index.html.