Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.
By: Zoe DeYoung
A billion dollar project to prevent invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes is set to begin construction this year, but don’t feel too bad for the nuisance fish.
The species has been wreaking havoc throughout the Mississippi River Basin, out-competing native fish for living space and resources since the 1980s.
Pictured: Jill Moon
Longtime Alton Telegraph reporter Jill Moon first heard of the invasive carp issue at a 2009 city council meeting in Grafton, a river town where the Illinois River acts as a perfect feeder for breeding carp.
Three entrepreneurs presented a plan at the meeting to capitalize on the carp. “They thought they had a good money making venture,” Moon said.
The plan involved an Asian carp processing plant. It got the green light. Moon was on the story from there: if you have lemons, make lemonade; if you have carp, put them on the menu.
“When I went to these city council meetings, they would have the boring stuff like, ‘The Street Department fixed Oak Avenue.’ A factory to make Asian carp byproducts stood out to me. And I already knew that the Asian carp was a problem,” Moon said.
A problem not only for native aquatic life, but for boaters. Asian carp tend to feed at the water’s surface and are very easily disturbed. When agitated by a boat propeller or even a sculler’s oar, they can jump up to 10 feet in the air. Think popcorn, but instead it is hundreds of soaring fish.
“Certain times of year when they are spawning, the Asian carp will jump out of the Illinois River. They’ve jumped in boats before, and they’ve accidentally given bloody noses,” Moon explained. “They’re a nuisance species,” Moon added. “So that just struck a nerve in me to find out more.”
The Grafton-based American Heartland Fish Products plant was the brainchild of those entrepreneurs at the meeting Their plan came to fruition, soon processing as much as 60,000 pounds of carp a day, as well as fish oil, fish meal and a funky smell.
The odor began to bother residents, so much so that the plant was given 30 days to address the stink. Ultimately, the plant went kaput.
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