JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri conservation officials are preparing to launch a program aimed at ridding the waters of the Mississippi River of an invasive species.
In a request for bids issued this week, the Missouri Department of Conservation is seeking a vendor to manage a program that will pay commercial fish harvesters an incentive to sweep two sections of the river of four types of carp.
The department says populations of invasive carp, including bighead, black, grass and silver, have rapidly expanded throughout the state and the Mississippi River basin, including places like Creve Coeur Lake in Maryland Heights.
“Management and control of invasive carp is necessary to reduce their impact on native species, the ecosystem and the economy,” bidding documents note.
The fish typically starve out native sport fish and wipe out endangered mussel and snail populations.
In some cases, the fish will jump out of the water and injure boaters.
Under the plan, the vendor will contract with commercial fish companies and pay them between 7 and 10 cents per pound for invasive fish that are being sold to a processor, wholesaler or other buyers.
Cost estimates for the program were not immediately available, but 1 million pounds of fish would equate to a payout of $100,000 from the state.
The focus will be on two sections of the Mississippi River on Missouri’s eastern border, including a southern stretch along the Bootheel region from the Arkansas border to the confluence of the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois. The northern stretch covers the river between Hannibal and the Iowa border.
Conservation Department spokesman Joe Jerek said the vendor will make money on the project by charging the state a fee for “project management.” Funding is coming from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Jerek said this is the first time Missouri has initiated a program like those that have netted millions of pounds the fish in other states and waterways.
The aim of an Illinois River program is to stop the fish from entering Lake Michigan and proliferating in the Great Lakes.
In September 2019, for example, a similar effort on the Illinois River resulted in the removal of more than 500,000 pounds of carp from the Peoria area. In each of the next two years, fish harvesters hauled in more than 5 million pounds of the fish, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
In Tennessee, state wildlife officials said 10 million pounds of fish have been removed since an incentive program was launched there in 2018.
The invasive species migrated to waterways in the state via locks at Kentucky and Barkley dams on the Cumberland River in Kentucky.
Once caught, the fish are typically sold to processing companies that produce fertilizer, catfish and crayfish, bat and fish oil.
There also is a push to get the carp onto more dinner plates.
In Illinois, officials launched a rebranding effort last year to rename the fish “Copi,” in an attempt to get more people to consume carp. The new name is a play on the word “copious.”
Changing a fish’s name has been a successful strategy for other fish. Orange roughy was originally known as slimehead; Chilean sea bass was known as Patagonian toothfish; and peekytoe crab was once known as mud crab.
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