Crazy Carps

Environment: Giant Carp Gone Wild

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3868108

Newsweek

Jan. 12 issue - Marcy Poplett has a whopper of a fish tale. In the fall, the 35-year-old from Peoria, Ill., took her Jet Ski out on the Illinois River. As she cruised along, a 10-pound Asian carp jumped out of the water and hit her between the eyes. Poplett, knocked unconscious, fell into the river. Boaters spotted her bobbing in her life jacket and pulled her to safety; she had a concussion, a broken nose and cracked vertebrae. "I got carped," she says with a grin.

A laughing matter? Not entirely. Gigantic Asian carp?up to four feet long and 100 pounds?are becoming an environmental issue. It's not just that the fish are attacking people (the sound of marine motors makes them jump up to 10 feet): they're spreading out of control. Brought here from China in the '70s to control algae in catfish farms, Asian carp have become the dominant large fish in the Illinois River and have infested huge swaths of the Missouri and Mississippi. If they find their way into the Great Lakes, the carp?which eat the plankton all fish rely on?could destroy an ecosystem that reaches from Minnesota to New York and ruin a $4.5 billion fishing industry. Chicago has been watching with horror: the carp have made their way to within 50 miles of Lake Michigan. The city hopes to fend off the fish with a new under-water electrical barrier. But the carp are outpacing Congress, where the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act is languishing. It would provide funds?and tighten rules on importing alien species.

?Martha Brant

? 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

carps are cool