In 1995, a Tasmanian fisherman found a dead carp. What followed was a four-decade operation to remove nearly 50,000 European fish

In January 1995, a fly fisherman walking the shore of Lake Crescent noticed something odd lying in the shallows. It was a dead carp. Nothing about that moment looked historic. But it set off one of the longest and most methodical wildlife removal operations the world has seen.

Tasmania's Inland Fisheries Service has confirmed that European carp are functionally eradicated from both Lake Crescent and Lake Sorell, two connected freshwater lakes on the state's Central Plateau. Getting there meant pulling 49,301 carp out of the water over almost three decades. Not a typo. Nearly fifty thousand fish, one net at a time.