| Combatting Silver Carp: TN implants tracking devices in invasive fish to follow their movements | |
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Source: WBIR |
3/17/2022 |
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Invasive carp continue to plague Tennessee waters, so state and federal wildlife authorities are taking the fight underwater to track how they move in hopes of finding ways to make it harder for them to spread elsewhere.
There are four species of invasive Asian carp state wildlife authorities are worried about: Silver Carp, Bighead Carp, Black Carp and Grass Carp.
Silver carp, in particular, are considered to be a real problem because of their large size and tendency to leap out of the water when startled. This poses the real potential for injury for boaters and anglers, and their feeding habits pose the danger of outcompeting other marine life to the point smaller fish die out.
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To fight the fish, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is turning to underwater tracking implants. It recently went out on Pickwick and Cheatham lakes on the Cumberland River for three days with the U.S. Geological Survey to target silver carp and implant acoustic tags inside them.
A total of 125 carp were scooped up from each lake, and teams made quick work of them by stunning the fish, making a small incision, implanting an acoustic tag, and then sewing them up before releasing them downstream below the dams. The researchers want to see how the fish move upstream and up through dam locks to find ways to better stop their movements.
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