{"id":191022,"date":"2025-10-05T06:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T06:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:31:09","slug":"americans-canadians-unite-in-battling-eating-machine-carp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191022\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans, Canadians unite in battling \u2018eating machine\u2019 carp"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUNNVILLE, Canada – Finally, something to unite US President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponents and the Canadians he is threatening to annex: a ferociously hungry carp.<\/p>\n

Invasive carp, sometimes called Asian carp, were introduced in the United States in the 1970s. And they have not stopped spreading \u2013 and eating everything in their path \u2013 since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re eating machines,\u201d said Ms Trisiah Tugade, an aquatic biologist with Canada\u2019s Invasive Carp Programme, as she and her team glided along the Grand River \u2013 a Lake Erie tributary \u2013 looking for fish that specialists fear will devastate the Great Lakes. <\/p>\n

Because they can eat up 40 per cent of their body weight daily, invasive carps were initially seen as a tool to control nuisance algae in confined areas, like aquaculture ponds. <\/p>\n

But they escaped, likely during floods, and made their way north, including through the Illinois River. That has raised the spectre of the devastating eater establishing itself in the Great Lakes, the world\u2019s largest freshwater system by surface area. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Fisheries and Oceans Canada team member in search of invasive grass carp on Sept 25.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing that I have seen that scares ecologists more than looking at what the impacts would potentially be if the species of Asian carp that are in the Illinois River get into the Great Lakes and form a breeding population,\u201d University of Michigan Great Lakes water policy expert Mike Shriberg told AFP. <\/p>\n

It is a threat that has attracted the attention of Mr Trump, who calls the fish \u201ca threat\u201d, and specialists on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

Each year, Canadian experts search for carp in Great Lakes tributaries considered favourable for spawning and feeding \u2013 often grassy areas with warmer, shallow water. <\/p>\n

In the Grand River, Ms Tugade and senior biologist Alex Price oversaw an electrofishing mission.<\/p>\n

The team lowered two roads into the water that released non-lethal pulsating charges, stunning the fish and allowing them to be brought with nets into a tank onboard. <\/p>\n

Fish were identified, measured and \u2013 if not deemed invasive \u2013 released into the muddy water. <\/p>\n

Since the programme\u2019s launch in 2012, only a few dozen invasive carp have been captured in Canadian waters.<\/p>\n

Mr James Hall, whose Hall\u2019emin Sport Fishing business takes clients out on Lake Erie, told AFP he was one of the first to catch one. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was wondering what it was, but I knew it was something different,\u201d he said, describing the moment he pulled a carp out of the water a decade ago. <\/p>\n

Mr Hall said he put the fish on ice and called the government\u2019s carp hotline.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A carp, a freshwater fish, at the Parc Floral in eastern Paris on July 29. <\/p>\n

PHOTO: AFP<\/p>\n

Invasive carp \u201chave been very rare to catch, which is great\u201d, said Mr Price, while insisting vigilance was essential given the gravity of the threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can breed multiple times a year and produce hundreds of thousands of eggs in a single event,\u201d he told AFP. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the first year of life, they can be too big for our natural predators to eat,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Mr Shriberg described the Great Lakes as \u201cthe great uniters\u201d across US political parties and between Canada and the United States. <\/p>\n

Defending them against invasive species has been a bipartisan priority in states on their shores, several of which have historically been US electoral swing states \u2013 like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin \u2013 he said. <\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s May White House memo confirming his support for efforts against \u201cthe economic and ecological threat of invasive carp\u201d, drew cross-party praise. <\/p>\n

Mr Shriberg called Mr Trump\u2019s \u201cquiet\u201d memo an affirmation of the rare bipartisan nature of Great Lakes policy. <\/p>\n

But that path forward is uncertain. <\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s trade war and annexation threats have strained US-Canada relations. Earlier in 2025, the president reportedly told former prime minister Justin Trudeau that he wanted to revise treaties governing the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Fisheries and Oceans Canada team patrols the Grand River in Dunnville, Ontario, in search of invasive grass carp specimens on Sept 25.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: AFP<\/p>\n

Mr Shriberg noted cooperative management of the waterway has defined US-Canada relations, but said \u201cthe Trump administration\u2019s hostility towards Canada… threatens to blow that apart\u201d. <\/p>\n

If the battle against invasive carp fails, the consequences will be both dire and unpredictable, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would cause dramatic changes in the ecological balance of the water,\u201d Mr Shriberg said.<\/p>\n

And if they ever become established in the Great Lakes, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that you\u2019d have any chance of actually eliminating the population\u201d, he said. AFP<\/p>\n

United StatesCanadaFishEnvironmental issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUNNVILLE, Canada – Finally, something to unite US President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponents and the Canadians he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-191022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}