Status of the Major Aquaculture Carps of China in the Great Lakes Basin

Session: 02b. - Status and Management of Invasive Carps in the Great Lakes

Duane Chapman, USGS, [email protected]
Patrick Kocovsky, U.S. Geological Survey, [email protected]
Holly Embke, University of Toledo, [email protected]
Nicole King, University of Toledo, Lake Erie Center, [email protected]
Becky Cudmore, Fisheries & Oceans Canada, [email protected]

Abstract

Since the invasion of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), Bighead Carp (H. nobilis), Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), and Black Carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) into the Mississippi River Basin, federal, provincial, and state agencies have been working, through regulation,  management and research, to prevent their establishment in the Great Lakes. Herein we review the current status of these carps in the Great lakes. Lake Superior is the only lake with no records of these four species of carp. Only Grass Carp have been captured in Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Several Grass Carp have been captured in Lake Michigan and a few of its tributaries. To date, one Bighead Carp and one Silver Carp have been captured on the Great Lakes side of the electric barrier in the Chicago Area Waterways System. Three Bighead Carp were captured in Lake Erie between 1995 and 2000, and there have been more Grass Carp reported from Lake Erie than all of the other lakes combined. Lake Erie also supports the only known reproducing population of any of these species (Grass Carp) in the Great Lakes basin. 

1. Keyword
invasive species

2. Keyword
carp

3. Keyword
exotic species