Page 7 - Crappie NOW - September 2018

ASIAN CARP ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS

no food for the gamefish. White says nobody will get rich from
“And when the populations of carp the carp fund. “Even the commercial
get so great that they dominate an area, fishermen who will be subsidized, is
it’s obvious they disturb or destroy wanting the Asian carp gone so they
spawning beds in the spring causing can harvest the fish they need for their
even more lost gamefish. commercial fishing. The carp is 17 cents
“We have four major rivers coming a pound and we want to increase this so
together up here, the Tennessee, Ohio, it will be profitable for more fishermen to
Cumberland and Mississippi. This is a take big numbers of carp out of the water.
hotspot for the carp and must be given It will include getting more markets and
attention. If not, eventually there will be keeping fishermen on the water instead
no stopping them getting into all major of transporting fish long distances.
waters.” “I refuse to wait until it’s too late,
“The only solution now is commercial until other solutions are found.”
netting. Because the problem has become How can you help? One is to send
enormous, it is a federal problem.” letters to your political leaders to ask
Lyon County Kentucky Judge them to help save the waters and make
Executive, Wade White agrees. He them safer.
formed the War On Carp Coalition. The second is by donations. www.
“War On Carp,” says White, “is carpharvestfund.com money immediately
simply pulling groups and agencies goes to support the removal of carp
together who have been working hard without the government red tape.
individually. Working together we can To learn more, go to www.WarOnCarp.com
get more accomplished.”
White says there are potential - Tim Huffman
solutions in the works but we can’t wait
years for them to be developed. The
sound walls at locks can help the spread
but it’s critical to start removing the carp
now.
“We’ve got to have money in
order to do what we need to do with
the barriers and to pay the commercial
fishermen what they need in order to pull
out a lot of fish. We must improve our
markets so they can take out more fish.
These are things we need now. If we
don’t, everything will be ruined. They’ve
invaded our waters and everything they
touch is being destroyed.”
White continues, “A congressional
meeting here in Eddyville, Kentucky (July
27th), lead by Congressman Cormer,
allowed us to present many emails of
support, hear facts and see the number
of people concerned about this problem.
He can take this back to Washington
and ask for the amount of money we are
requesting, 50-million dollars over a five
year period.”

7 Crappie NOW September 2018