Biologists fight Asian carp invading Mississippi River - Entrepreneur Generations

The battle to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes is well-known, but now a sub-species, the silver carp, "a voracious, fast-moving and highly invasive species ravaging the Upper Mississippi River, has set its sights on the Tennessee, Cumberland, Yazoo and other Southern streams," Dan Chapman reports for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Another sub-species, the black carp, is following in its tracks.

The carp pose the same risk there as they do in the Great Lakes: they eat the food normally eaten by native fish and starve them out. That could be a big problem for the ecosystem, as well as anglers on and near the Mississippi River and the recreational economy that depends on them.

State and federal biologists up and down the river are tracking the carps' upstream push. Angie Rodgers, an FWS biologist told Chapman that "the Southeast is a hotspot of biodiversity, so we’re trying to prevent further declines in at-risk species. It’s a big threat . . . There’s not a magic bullet to get rid of them. It’s just a matter of working together to slow their movement and potential impact."

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2u9nzyI Biologists fight Asian carp invading Mississippi River - Entrepreneur Generations

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