Thread: Asian Carp Meeting Thursday

Thanks Doug and Bandchaser for representing and anyone else that was able to attend.

From Paul Rister in the "Kentucky Lake" thread:

We have known about Asian carp in our waters for many years, based on knowledge of commercial anglers catching them. From these early years the Department began to change commercial fishing regulations to help increase fishing for the carp. However, the low market price dictated the minimum effort commercial anglers put toward catching them. Behind the scene (when sport anglers say we were doing nothing) our Director, Mr. Ron Brooks was consistently meeting with legislatures leading all the way to the White House, about ways to stimulate the market for the carp and the need for money to fund programs to study and control the carp. Ron, myself and others with the Department were meeting with outside investors potentially wanting to open up fish processing plants for the carp. Investors that I personally met with traveled from China, Switzerland and Louisiana. However, getting someone to invest millions into a market is not that easy when they want to make a profit for a long time, and we want the carp gone as quick as possible. Hence, if they were able to fish the population down (what we want), then they would not have product and their market closes. Fast forward a few years and the Department has further change commercial regulations and funded an $0.05/pound incentive to get commercial anglers to focus their harvest on the lakes. Despite what a lot of sports anglers perceive; that you can just throw a gill net in the lake anywhere and catch 3,000 pound of Asian carp, is far from reality. They are a hard fish to catch. The commercial anglers put in a lot of effort, and some day only come back with 1,000 pounds. There are still many barriers for commercial anglers. The markets want the fish fresh. There is a need for a lot of ice. There is a need for cooled box trucks to transport fish from the lakes to the markets. There are times the markets have higher demand, but fishing is tough. And, there are time when market demands are low, but angler catch is high. Commercial anglers are a dying breed, meaning younger anglers are not picking up the trade. It is tough work, and long hours, which happen mostly at night. There is a lot of knowledge to commercial fishing. Again, you just don't go throw a net in the lake and catch the target species. There needs to be education and training for new anglers. We don't what them out there catching crappie and bass. And they want to be able to catch what will make them money with the least amount of effort and time. The equipment for commercial fishing is not cheap. So there is a lot of start up cost. So the Public, Private Partnership (3P's) program is hopefully going to help bridge some of the gaps.

Thank you Paul for the info.

Lots of times I (and others ) have flamed you pretty good for our perceived lack of action. It was apparent from the meeting last night that a lot of work has actually been going on behind the scenes. I thank you and A Martin for your work and look forward to the progress on this program in the very near future. I also hope we didn't get too rough.

Thank you, Doug and Bandchaser for attending the meeting. Forgive me if I missed it somewhere but what is the current price per pound for Asian Carp right now?

Frozen is $4.99/lb, and fresh is $7.99/lb.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

This is probably way out of my area of expertise and the only reason I mention this is because I worked at a can manufacturing plant in St. Joseph, MO. which was co-located next to the Purina Plant who processed Wet and Dry Cat/Dog Food, does anyone know what they pay per pound for fish to be processed as dog or cat food? I remember going over to the plant and they would have huge roll off dumpsters filled with fish parts, I guess from other fish processing plants?

I can't find any recent data ... but, I have read that the commercial fishers "were" getting around $0.10 per pound of whole carp. Compared to Buffalo or Catfish .... that's a paltry sum ... and likely the reason why subsidies are being offered to the commercial fishers. (see this article from 2015 : Encouraging Asian carp fishing in Kentucky - WPSD Local 6: Your news, weather, and sports authority )

One thing the carp netters are asking is to be allowed to keep and sell buffalo that they catch while netting Asians. That would go a long way to subsidize their efforts.