24.1 Introduction

Mary Ann Clark; Jung Choi; and Matthew Douglas

Main photo shows fish jumping out of the water, and inset photo shows a pile of dead fish in a container.
Asian carp jump out of the water in response to electrofishing. The Asian carp in the inset photograph were harvested from the Little Calumet River in Illinois in May 2010, using rotenone, a toxin often used as an insecticide, in an effort to learn more about the population of the species. Image from Biology 2e from OpenStax, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0 with the image credit (credit main image: modification of work by USGS; credit inset: modification of work by Lt. David French, USCG)

Imagine sailing down a river in a small motorboat on a weekend afternoon; the water is smooth, and you are enjoying the warm sunshine and cool breeze, when suddenly you are hit in the head by a 20-pound silver carp. This is now a risk on many rivers and canal systems in Illinois and Missouri because of the presence of Asian carp.

This fish—actually a group of species including the silver, black, grass, and big head carp—has been farmed and eaten in China for over 1000 years. It is one of the most important aquaculture food resources worldwide. In the United States, however, Asian carp is considered a dangerous invasive species that disrupts community structure and composition to the point of threatening native species.

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24.1 Introduction Copyright © 2022 by Mary Ann Clark; Jung Choi; and Matthew Douglas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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