The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service served notice today that it will begin to collect scientific and economic information on bighead carp to help determine if the fish should be placed on the list of injurious species, which would prohibit their importation into the United States and their shipment across State lines.
Part of the Service action is in response to appeals from 25 Members of Congress who represent districts near the Great Lakes, which has a $4 billion fishery at stake, and 10 state conservation and other organizations that favor the bighead carps listing. The same inquiry was initiated for the silver carp on July 23, 2003.
Bighead carp are already established in the Mississippi River basin. Biologists are concerned that the fish could slip through a manmade canal into the Great Lakes, where the voracious eaters would threaten the food supply available to native fish. Great Lakes fisheries already are struggling against other invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species , including the sea lamprey, round goby and Zebra mussel, among others.
If the bighead carp were placed on the injurious species list, it would be illegal to move them across state lines or to import them into the United States without a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Bighead carp have been used by catfish farmers because they feed on phytoplankton, zooplankton and detritus that they filter out of the water.
Bighead carp were imported into the U.S. in 1973 and stocked for phytoplankton control and as a food fish. By the mid-1970s, carp were being raised at six federal, state, and private facilities and had been stocked in municipal sewage lagoons. Silver carp have been recorded in 12 states.
Comments on the notice of inquiry, published in todays Federal Register, must be submitted within 60 days by mail, to: Chief, Division of Environmental Quality, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 322, Arlington, Virginia, 22203; or transmitted to the same address via fax at 703-358-1800; or comments may be sent by e-mail to: bigheadcarp@fws.gov. Public comment will be evaluated after the 60-day cutoff and biologists will determine if bighead carp warrant listing as injurious wildlife.
