Uh oh! Invasive Asian carp shown to have reproduced in Great Lakes watershed for first time

Grass carp
CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia

Asian carp species of fish are considered to be invasive in North-America. Because they haven't evolved with the local ecosystems, there's no good natural mechanisms to balance their populations, and so they threaten native fish species.

Things were already scary enough, but scientists have made a new discovery that could complicate things further:

[Scientists] have documented for the first time that an Asian carp species has successfully reproduced within the Great Lakes watershed. [...] An analysis of four grass carp captured last year in Ohio's Sandusky River, a tributary of Lake Erie, found they had spent their entire lives there and were not introduced through means such as stocking, according to researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey and Bowling Green State University.


Asian carps can be very fast breeders and eat large amounts of plankton. They could out-compete the locals and put significant pressure on their survival.

Because all sub-species of Asian carps require similar conditions to breed, this finding means that they could all potential reproduce in Great Lakes tributaries, including the most worrisome species, the bighead and silver carps.




See also: Yoink! Sea lion steals fish right out of posing fisherman's hands (video)

Tags: Canada | Fish


New to TreeHugger?

treehugger on phone
treehugger slideshows