Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

[JacksinPA]

Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

State and federal wildlife agencies have developed a new weapon to slow down invasive carp across the Great Lakes region: traitor fish.

apnews.com

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Wildlife officials across the Great Lakes are looking for spies to take on an almost impossible mission: stop the spread of invasive carp.

Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

Agency workers turn carp into double agents by capturing them, implanting transmitters and tossing them back. Floating receivers send real-time notifications when a tagged carp swims past. Carp often clump in schools in the spring and fall. Armed with the traitor carp’s location, agency workers and commercial anglers can head to that spot, drop their nets and remove multiple fish from the ecosystem.

Kayla Stampfle, invasive carp field lead for the Minnesota DNR, said the goal is to monitor when carp start moving in the spring and use the tagged fish to ambush their brethren.
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Kind of fishy but pretty high tech.

 

[RF667799]

Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

State and federal wildlife agencies have developed a new weapon to slow down invasive carp across the Great Lakes region: traitor fish.

apnews.com

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Wildlife officials across the Great Lakes are looking for spies to take on an almost impossible mission: stop the spread of invasive carp.

Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

Agency workers turn carp into double agents by capturing them, implanting transmitters and tossing them back. Floating receivers send real-time notifications when a tagged carp swims past. Carp often clump in schools in the spring and fall. Armed with the traitor carp’s location, agency workers and commercial anglers can head to that spot, drop their nets and remove multiple fish from the ecosystem.

Kayla Stampfle, invasive carp field lead for the Minnesota DNR, said the goal is to monitor when carp start moving in the spring and use the tagged fish to ambush their brethren.
====================================================
Kind of fishy but pretty high tech.

Some of the rivers I haunt, the biomass of Asian carp is so huge there's no trouble finding them. Commercial fishermen can have difficulty lifting their nets, so heavy are they with those species at times. They make half way good bait, and procuring them is as easy as running a boat just off-plane about 20 feet from the outside of a bend. Just remember to duck.

 

[Fearandloathing]

Do snitches net fishes? Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push

State and federal wildlife agencies have developed a new weapon to slow down invasive carp across the Great Lakes region: traitor fish.

apnews.com

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Wildlife officials across the Great Lakes are looking for spies to take on an almost impossible mission: stop the spread of invasive carp.

Over the last five years, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have employed a new seek-and-destroy strategy that uses turncoat carp to lead them to the fish’s hotspot hideouts.

Agency workers turn carp into double agents by capturing them, implanting transmitters and tossing them back. Floating receivers send real-time notifications when a tagged carp swims past. Carp often clump in schools in the spring and fall. Armed with the traitor carp’s location, agency workers and commercial anglers can head to that spot, drop their nets and remove multiple fish from the ecosystem.

Kayla Stampfle, invasive carp field lead for the Minnesota DNR, said the goal is to monitor when carp start moving in the spring and use the tagged fish to ambush their brethren.
====================================================
Kind of fishy but pretty high tech.

I used to live in the shadow of Lake Erie, both sides. Western New York and central Ontario along the Grand River.

Frankly I'm surprised there's anything natural still alive. In the 50''s it was an invasion of Lamprey eels, in the 60's it was the first wave of muscles, in the 70's it was chemical run off. As a kid we'd net smelt in the late winter; great eating

I sure as hell wouldn't eat anything that came out of there. Lake Huron, yes, Erie or Ontario, **** no!

 

[Grand Mal]

I used to live in the shadow of Lake Erie, both sides. Western New York and central Ontario along the Grand River.

Frankly I'm surprised there's anything natural still alive. In the 50''s it was an invasion of Lamprey eels, in the 60's it was the first wave of muscles, in the 70's it was chemical run off. As a kid we'd net smelt in the late winter; great eating

I sure as hell wouldn't eat anything that came out of there. Lake Huron, yes, Erie or Ontario, **** no!

When I went to work in Fort McMurray years ago there were advisories about how many pounds of Athabaska River fish an adult should eat per year.
That made my number '0'.

 

[RF667799]

When I went to work in Fort McMurray years ago there were advisories about how many pounds of Athabaska River fish an adult should eat per year.
That made my number '0'.

There were advisories on the Ohio River when I was running trot lines there back in the '90 and '91. So my wife refused to allow any consumption of fish from that river. I did give some away at times, but by and large I was probably the only person in existence running a catch and release trot line on the Ohio River.

 

[Grand Mal]

There were advisories on the Ohio River when I was running trot lines there back in the '90 and '91. So my wife refused to allow any consumption of fish from that river. I did give some away at times, but by and large I was probably the only person in existence running a catch and release trot line on the Ohio River.

Don't know what a trot line is but I wouldn't feed contaminated fish to my dog, much less my family.
I got enough heavy-metal exposure from my work without supplementing it. And introducing it to my family.

 

[RF667799]

Don't know what a trot line is but I wouldn't feed contaminated fish to my dog, much less my family.
I got enough heavy-metal exposure from my work without supplementing it. And introducing it to my family.

A trot line is a device often used in commercial fishing. It is a long main line, with many short "stageon" lines at regular intervals. The baited hooks are on the stageons. There are generally about 50 of these on a single trot line, though it's entirely up to the fisherman (and the local DNR) as to how they are arranged. On the Ohio, I had one end of the main line tied to a tree on the bank, and the line extended out into a deep hole where the other end was weighted down with a cinder block. About a third and 2/3 of the way down the line were tied milk jugs, which floated the line off the bottom.

I'm not really sure at this point, but I think the Ohio advisory was on account of PCBs and agricultural run-off. It only applied to some species, mostly larger predatory fish which would accumulate toxins from feeding on smaller fish.

 

[Grand Mal]

A trot line is a device often used in commercial fishing. It is a long main line, with many short "stageon" lines at regular intervals. The baited hooks are on the stageons. There are generally about 50 of these on a single trot line, though it's entirely up to the fisherman (and the local DNR) as to how they are arranged. On the Ohio, I had one end of the main line tied to a tree on the bank, and the line extended out into a deep hole where the other end was weighted down with a cinder block. About a third and 2/3 of the way down the line were tied milk jugs, which floated the line off the bottom.

Sounds like a combination of two fishing techniques out here. Guys fish in the river with a night line, a single line anchored on shore and dropped from a float out on the river. It's a popular way of fishing for sturgeon on the Fraser River but I don't think is legal for migratory game fish like trout, salmon and steelhead.
Spring salmon ( what Americans call king salmon) is often fished commercially by trollers with long poles out either side and multiple troll lines trolling bait through the run.

I'm not really sure at this point, but I think the Ohio advisory was on account of PCBs and agricultural run-off. It only applied to some species, mostly larger predatory fish which would accumulate toxins from feeding on smaller fish.

Out here, British Columbia, there's not much contamination from agriculture. Mostly it's from mining, where there is contamination. We have an advantage over inland places in that the ocean is a big toilet that flushes twice a day.

 

[RF667799]

@Grand Mal

I employed trolling with my last boat- using a couple sport fishing rods- while lake fishing for white bass.

The trot line advantage is multiple baited hooks, putting a lot of scent in the water. A trot line is usually checked from a boat, pulling the boat along hand over hand, baiting hooks or removing fish as required. In my state and in Kentucky, the limit of a sport fishing license was 50 hooks. I usually had no more than 30 or 40 on my trot line, so that I could still pole and line fish while waiting to check the trot line.

Running trot lines can be dangerous. Getting snagged by your own hooks and pulled into the water by a taught line strumming in the current is no joke. I gave up trot lines when I moved back to Illinois from Kentucky, but took up another multiple hook method on the Kaskaskia River. That being "jug fishing". Those are a line with hook tied to a liter soda bottle, or- as I later constructed- Styrofoam "pool noodles" cut into 18 inch lengths. I usually made my lines about 6-8 feet long. The idea being that right at dusk, the jugs are baited and tossed out into the current. You proceed to float downstream with them, watching them with a spotlight. When one starts jumping around or going under and resurfacing, you start up the outboard and give chase. It can be a lot of fun, and very productive. I used to sometimes take well over a couple hundred pounds of live weight of fish within a couple hours after dark, using 40 or so jugs.