First, before we talk about where specifically they are, we have to know what it means. The Bighead and the Silver, because they are driven to move upriver, are known to send out "scouts", When you first hear of catches of Asian Carps it is usually in small numbers, the Scouts. The next stage of infestation is usually when we see a reproducing population, while each female has been known to carry 2 million eggs and spawn three times a year, as with all fish, they don't all survive. Studies show that Bluegills are voracious consumers of Asian Carps' eggs and fry. The next step in their infestation is when they are a self-sustaining population and are on their way to overwhelming stretches of River. It has been estimated that on the Lower Illinois River, in some areas they make up 95% of the River's biomass.

The environment that the Carps enjoy is fast moving water, like Spring high water, for spawning and then they like to move to the slow water of a River and/or backwater lakes and channels to feed.
Since the accidental release of the four species in the South in the 1970's, they have been inexorably moving upriver. The first real impact on the public's knowledge of them was, when the reports started coming out of the Illinois River. I remember that it was about 15 years ago when I heard of a female jet skier on Peoria Lake who was hit by a Silver Carp resulting in being knocked unconscious and inflicting a broken jaw. The popularity of this video brought the issue to a whole new audience.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2gMP3Q2Z4
These are the Silver Carp, which are disturbed by boat noise and leap out of the water. Some researchers say that boat noises may mimic their predators in Asia, the fresh water dolphins and their survival instincts cause them to jump at noise.

The Lower Illinois River is heavily infested with both Bighead and Silver and the big concern is that they will enter the Great Lakes at Chicago and threaten a $7 billion dollar fishing economy. The upriver movement has been stalled about 80 miles south of Lake Michigan. The sustaining population hasn't moved upriver in 26 years.

The Wabash River in Indiana is heavily infested. The Carps have begun to establish a presence on the Ohio River and are moving up the Ohio's other tributaries, the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.

The Missouri is also heavily infested and the Carps have moved up the James River as far north as Jamestown, ND, where they are stopped by the Jamestown Dam. For those that have thought that the Carps won't survive in colder waters, know that Jamestown is on the same latitude as Fargo.

As far as the Rivers we care about, the Upper Mississippi is heavily infested, though not as bad as the Illinois, as far north as Lock and Dam 19 at Keokuk, IA. The 42 ft high dam has slowed them down with the only way they can move upriver is through the Lock. Reports of a reproducing population in the Quad cities area seem plausible. What we have been seeing, when reported by commercial anglers, seem to be those aforementioned Scouts. The St. Croix, from what I have been able to ascertain from netting and eyewitness reports seems to have a reproducing population, there are too many sightings to think that we are just seeing Scouts. It would be very difficult to properly ascertain the level infestation of the St. Croix because it's extreme depth would mean bringing in deep water netting gear to accurately gauge the extent of their numbers. The biggest fear in the State of Minnesota for potential infestation is the Minnesota River. The biology of the Minnesota, a slow moving River with many backwater lakes and nutrient rich waters that are prevalent in the agriculture dominant Valley. The same environment that the Minnesota River has is very similar to the Illinois River's.

​Next: What is being done and what will our future look like.

In honor of the now annual dog and pony show called the Invasive (Because MN can't call them Asian like the rest of the world) Carp Forum, Being held on March 10th at the US Fish and Wildlife Center in Bloomington. I will be providing tidbits of information on this much publicized Aquatic Invasive Species. There is too much information to provide and digest in one sitting, so I will dribble out bits and pieces of the information I have gleaned over the last few years. While I have been a member of the MN Asian Carp Action Plan Working Group, I got most of my information from an individual we all call the Carp Guy.                                                                                                                               Ric Carlson, from Hanska, MN, dedicated his life over the last few years to finding out everything he could about the Asian Carps. His endeavors took him from Arkansas fish farms that breed Grass Carp for commercial sale, to the muggy hot summers commercial fishing on the Illinois River, and to the cold of MN winter commercial fishing to get information. Ric, at great cost, personally, financially, and health wise, he traveled the country to find answers and possible solutions for MN. He believes science and action is better than politics and rhetoric.We all owe him a debt for his efforts.

Below are pictures of the four Asian Carps that make up the invasive species we are worried about. The Silver Carp is the one most are familiar with and that is because the have innate reaction to noise and leap out of the water when confronted with noise. The 2nd picture is of a Bighead Carp. They have the ability to grow to 90lbs +. The Silver and the Bighead are plankton filter feeders. They dine on the food at the bottom of the aquatic food chain, that all other aquatic species utilize. An interesting point of history about these fish, especially in light of little federal help is, that they were all brought in either by or with the support of federal and state agencies. All four species were brought in to the US in 1972. When the Clean Water Act came about in 1973, there were a lot of sewage treatment facilities with ponds that weren't going to pass the new regulations. The federal EPA actually funded projects in AK to utilize the Silver and Bigheads to clean the water. They went so far as to threaten facilities with a $5,000/day fine if they didn't use them. NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) National Marine and Fisheries Service marketed them to fish farmers as a way to clean up ponds and as another product revenue source.Truck after truck hauled them to Illinois, sponsored by the Illinois Natural History Survey, to experiment with them cleaning out hog manure ponds.
The Grass Carp are underwater vegetation eaters and were labeled as an "underwater cow", they did an extremely efficient job in controlling out of control  aquatic plants in fish farm ponds.There threat to us is that they are voracious plant eaters and they could affect the aquatic vegetation that are utilized by our fish and waterfowl.
Black Carp were also efficient in controlling another nuisance at fish farms, snails. Black carp are mollusk eaters and pose a great threat to the recovering freshwater mussels of the Upper Mississippi.

Next up: Where are They?

I wrote this in response to the City of St. Paul Park's plan for Lilydale. I am glad I don't have to pay taxes in St. Paul so that they can "beautify" transportation trails in a floodplain park.

I have watched, over my many years on the River, the progression of Lilydale,
both as City and "Park". I first was sad to see the houses/trailers and the
residents that occupied them leave. I have always appreciated the many facets of the River's community, whether it was floodplain dwelling River Rats, shanty boaters, or live on boaters. I have always treasured those parts, even if the MNDNR and the new "guardians" in town, the National Park Service didn't accept them as part of the culture of the River. As long as I didn't pay for the consequences of their decisions, let them stay. I especially enjoyed the
ambiance of Wayne and Dolly's watering hole at the marina. Even as a young man, I enjoyed the irony of having people quaffing cold ones in two such distinct establishments as the Pool and Yacht Club and the Lilydale Marina, almost within hollering distance from each other. But alas, people with grander plans for Lilydale moved those residents out and we all waited for what was to come.

And we all waited and waited. At the same time, I filled my time railing
against the those same people who stripped Lilydale of its' character and life,
because they were now calling for eliminating the commercial side of the River, another piece in the fabric of the River culture, from the Riverfront-my life. I
remember chastising those people, in public meetings, how their plans for the
rest of the Riverfront smelled a lot like the Lilydale Plan. Eliminate and
stagnate. As the years passed and the minimal "improvements" crept in to
Lilydale, I started appreciating the fact that we almost had a "real" floodplain park with minimal touches of the St. Paul Parks' heavy-handed planners intrusion. I had seen their touches on other so called "Flood Plain Parks" like Harriet Island and the Upper Landing. I had seen how they took a community friendly park, like Harriet Island, where at any time you could see families picnicking, soccer games(And I am old enough to say, I proudly played against the Aztecas, on their home field-Harriet Island), and summer softball games, into an event park for carpet bagging event promoters to enjoy the tax provided venues and take their money and run. I watched the Upper Landing morph from a long awaited restoration to its' natural form as a floodplain into some technicolored Euro styled housing mass, just waiting for the next big flood.

Several of the things that have have stuck with me from my "green" deckhand days of 1973 don't have anything to do with the "romance" of the River that I came to think of of as the Mark Twain syndrome. I lost that romance in the first few days. I found I was ill-prepared for the hard work, the hours, and the characters I found myself bound to on a small steel box. But, those stories are for another time, what really hit me that summer of '73 is how dirty our Rivers were. Transiting the locks of Mpls with condoms hanging on the lock walls where I had to work assaulted my sense of propriety. Having to wade or breaststroke through the brown "suds" at Lockport Lock downriver from Chicago was more than a job-site nuisance. As a point of reference, I was walking on an empty barge going into Lockport almost 10' off the water and the "suds" were over my head. Navigating the waters and participating with my fellow boat inmates flushing toilets, that went directly overboard and dumping all kinds of effluent from our "box' into the Rivers. When called on it, the old-timers would say the River cleans itself after a few miles. From what I saw, maybe it did in Mark Twain's time, but not in those days! As the years went on, we were forced to clean up our act and most were glad we did, but I never really saw much of an improvement to the River. One day, after picking up a barge mooring cable attached to a pipe on the bank south of the Pigs Eye Sewage plant and wondering where I could wipe off the smelly black goo, I got my answer from my pilot.I asked him, "How do we allow this to happen, we had to clean up our mess, what about this mess? He pointed out something that we never think much about, but it is basic to our existence, especially in a metro area. "Greg, everyone wants to turn on their faucets and see water appear and they want to flush their toilets and see that disappear and they don't really care how that happens. Now, there are way more of them than us and that is what you call political power!" In the years following, we have to thank our cheese-head neighbors and their willingness to use the courts to force Pigs Eye to clean up what was once the biggest polluter on the Upper Mississippi.. No agency initiatives or NGO (Non Government Agencies) campaigns, have been as effective in restoring the River's health than spending money at Pigs Eye. In the 1970s, according to my professors in the infant Environmental Studies program at St. Cloud. ( Now that was a bunch, philosophy professors searching for footing in a new world!) There was zero oxygen in the River downstream of Pigs Eye for almost 5 miles. Today, that stretch of the River has been declared the greatest trophy walleye fishery in the State by our DNR.
Part of the process of cleaning up Pigs Eye was separating the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers. In the old days both our storm and sanitary sewers ran to Pigs Eye. During big rain events, the impermeable surfaces of our Metro Area overwhelmed the capacity of the sanitary pipes and that excess flow would be diverted to the storm sewers running to the River. Thus, that interrupted journey to Pigs Eye produced my prophylactic companions hanging on the Lock walls. That has stopped, but one positive aspect of connected storm and sanitary is now missing. When we didn't have big rain events, all water, storm and sanitary was sent to Pigs Eye and treated, poorly but treated. Now, the effluent of almost 3.5 million people, minus their sanitary, flows directly to the River. Most people don't dump their used oil down the storm drains anymore, but those vehicles we drive, do leak and the salt we use so that we are able to drive over the speed limit 24 hrs after a snow storm, that gets to the River too. The detritus of our urban greenspace and suburban flora, grass clippings and leaves, they go to the River.
Maybe we should have asked the question before and possibly could ask the same question today:
Seeing as we have instituted processes that clean up our human waste before it gets to the River much better than the past, maybe we should reconnect all of the sewers and treat all of our water. The down side of that would be during major rain events, some raw sewage would be discharged. Warnings could go out and possibly today's healthier River could do what the old timers said it did, clean itself after miles. This is a bit tongue in cheek, today I know what the old timers were describing was "The solution to pollution is dilution" and we now know that isn't something we want to use as a tool. That being said, we have to think of new ideas to help get better water quality and we need to have the discussion. Wisconsin might want to weigh in too. But, if we hurry, they may still be occupied with "What happened to Aaron?"

In my next posting, continuing Rivers as Storm Sewers, I will discuss what I think is the biggest threat to our River-the problem of Excess Water and don't believe everything you hear from our government and others that it is all the farmers fault. Think of the need to find a smaller group to pick on, not unlike cleaning up boat discharges while the discharges of millions of people overwhelm a River.

I started a blog a few years ago during an aborted trip from St. Paul to Galveston. As soon as I can figure how to get back in to it, I will finish it. Click on the following link to find the blog. galvestononthefatladypie.blogspot.com/

This is our attempt to keep interested people informed about River issues, both historical and present. I will start out with a copy of my biography. I have been privileged to have lived near the Mississippi River almost all of my life and made a living because of it for over 40 years.
I hope I can keep you informed and entertained.
Greg
Born in St. Paul, raised in Mendota, Minnesota City, and Pine Bend, MN.  Currently lives in South St. Paul. They are all towns on navigable rivers.
Got on my first towboat when I was 10 yrs. old. The engineer showed me the big engines, the cook gave me a big bowl of ice cream, and I fell in love with the river. Built a raft on the river when I was twelve and that experience taught me my river career wouldn’t be as a shipbuilder.
 
Started working on the river as a wharf rat, fueling and supplying boats.
Became a deckhand and after deciding I couldn’t drink enough coffee, smoke enough cigarettes, and drink Maalox by the big bottle – went into the office instead of becoming a pilot.
 
Worked in all aspects of barge operations, including crewing boats, dispatching, barge maintenance, and sales.
 
I have worked in subsequent years as the marine manager of a company engaged in private and COE dredging and construction projects.
 
My current jobs consist of consulting on marine projects, rentals of owned boats and barges, and management of river related real estate.
I also work part time, as a safety boat driver for Wilderness Inquiry Urban Wilderness Canoe Trips. It keeps me connected to the public, especially the youth.
 
I am currently:
Chairman of the Upper Mississippi Waterway Association, http://www.umwa.net/About-Us.html
 
Vice-President and co-founder of Friends of Pool 2.  http://www.friendsofpool2.org
 
Board Member and Vice President of Friends of the Minnesota Valley , www.friendsofmnvalley.org
 
Board Member of Red Wing Marine Museum. http://www.redwingmarinemuseum.com/
 
Board Member of Minnesota River Congress Action Board
 
 
Current and past participant or member of the following groups:
Advisory Committee for Mississippi National River and Recreation Area’s (National Park Service) Visitor Center at Science Museum of Minnesota
Mississippi River Citizens Commission
Metropolitan Council’s Surface Water Utilization Plan
Metropolitan Council’s steering committee for Pool 2 Initiative
Ad Hoc member, USACE St. Paul District River Resource Forum
Citizen Advisory Committee for the Lower MN River Watershed District and Lower Mississippi Watershed Mgmt. Org.
Technical Advisory Committee for the Nelson Mine Project at Grey Cloud Island
Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Rulemaking Advisory Committee
Lake Elysian Lake Association
Member of the MN Asian Carp Action Plan Working Group
Vice-President of Twin City Propeller Club
Life Member of Dakota County Historical Society
 
Interests:
Participating in river-related interest groups
Recreational boating and water sports on the river and lakes
Winter and summer skiing
Coaching a grown up Women’s Soccer team and playing soccer myself
 
Best 2 experiences:
In 2000 traveled to and spent 3 1/2 weeks in Vietnam adopting twin girls.
In 2005 spent a week in France navigating the Saone River with 22 other people piloting our own boats.