Not all Grass Carp hit the news

[OldTimer]

Seems the Ontario total this year is higher than reported:

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/593319...detective/


   

8.

boo.............

OldTimer

[Eli]

Grass carp aren't a problem. Neither are bigheads.
When they start sampling silvers, I'll worry..

[OldTimer]

(09-28-2015 09:13 PM)Eli Wrote:  Grass carp aren't a problem. Neither are bigheads.
When they start sampling silvers, I'll worry..

I & many others worry since it's not just about the fish populations.

   

Cheers,

OldTimer

[zippyFX]

Thanks for the link OT! This has been the best article I have seen on the Grass carp issue. Most have been fluff pieces.... Nice to know they are looking for spawning marks and getting otoliths tested and not just shrugging their shoulders.

My gut feel is that have been introduced intentionally or accidentally. I find it hard that some of these large fish have been undetected before is areas which are frequented by Carp enthusiasts.

But then again, once you dial something in, I find, you begin finding it everywhere.

[Eli]

(09-29-2015 06:23 AM)OldTimer Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 09:13 PM)Eli Wrote:  Grass carp aren't a problem. Neither are bigheads.
When they start sampling silvers, I'll worry..

I & many others worry since it's not just about the fish populations.



Cheers,

OldTimer

I challenge her (and anyone else) to name a locale/watershed where introduced GRASS CARP have ruined anything...

Sorry, I don't buy it. The mere fact that three unrelated species are being lumped in under the same umbrella ("asian carp") smacks of bs to me.
I'd worry about the industrial wasteland that is the Hamilton waterfront being much more detrimental to the health of local wetlands than I would about grass carp.

[OldTimer]

(09-30-2015 01:07 PM)Eli Wrote:  

(09-29-2015 06:23 AM)OldTimer Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 09:13 PM)Eli Wrote:  Grass carp aren't a problem. Neither are bigheads.
When they start sampling silvers, I'll worry..

I & many others worry since it's not just about the fish populations.



Cheers,

OldTimer

I challenge her (and anyone else) to name a locale/watershed where introduced GRASS CARP have ruined anything...

Sorry, I don't buy it. The mere fact that three unrelated species are being lumped in under the same umbrella ("asian carp") smacks of bs to me.
I'd worry about the industrial wasteland that is the Hamilton waterfront being much more detrimental to the health of local wetlands than I would about grass carp.

Give her a call and let us know how it goes:

   

[Eli]

Last time I called the DFO I got the bureaucratic runaround so thanks but no thanks.
I'm yet to read of a single case of grass carp-induced damage, but plenty of angling reports of how challenging and fun they are to catch.
Not all exotics are harmful.

[OldTimer]

Just perhaps one problem here is that in almost all cases North American grass carp populations were triploid (sterile and quite controllable as to numbers), OR - placed in a very controlled geographic situation/environment, and in both scenarios they were purposefully & knowingly stocked. Who's gonna call themselves an idiot?

Not one responsible fisheries biologist , nor one "government" (state, provincial, or federal) agency surrounding the great Lakes areas are promoting Grass Carp in any shape or form. They all condemn the species to immediate death if found. They all have grave concerns in their becoming resident. I seriously doubt it is mass grass carp hysteria.

This overwhelming majority (100%) of trained and very intelligent experts say "Nay-Nay" in the Great Lakes.

Furthermore, I have not seen a report from a well recognized private authority or expert supporting grass carp populations in the Great Lakes - have you?

As such I find I must continue to believe, and also trust my instincts, that perhaps sticking our arms in this "meat grinder" is not the wisest move.

But hey............ opinions vary.............

(Go Jays Go)

Cheers,

OldTimer

[GailBait]

I don't want them here too.

Because they are not natural there.

I think that many local original native plants, trees, clams, crayfish, bees, turtles, and fish, and more have suffered, or are now endangered by non native "to the locale" species introduction.

But not just from other countrees and places, but from right here in Canada too.

My father says that it wasn't broke till we fixed it.

[Eli]

OldTimer, I'd be a lot more sympathetic to your point of view if the same government agencies surrounding the Great Lakes who are now condemning grass carp, weren't at the same time all smiles and laughter when it came to other exotics which they are very much in bed with.
How is a grass carp any less native from a brown trout?
Years and years of stocking coho and chinook salmon, brown and rainbow trout...all to the detriment of who? Native Atlantic Salmon and lake-run brook trout the size of phone books (a real lost treasure).

I'm not "promoting" grass carp in the Great Lakes. I'm saying that it's not all doom and gloom if they are here.

I'm sure the DFO will be all too happy to have another voiceless scapegoat to blame for their own incompetent mismanagement of fisheries. Don't you know the double-crested cormorant eats ALL the small fish and big fish starve and that's why there are so few big fish left...? It's not that industrial farming, dredging, draining and damming is changing the chemical composition of watersheds, it's the bloody cormorants..err...grass carp.