Record Frankenfish

Char Wars

MSU scientists wade into fight against invasive lake trout in Montana's national parks.

Six miles into Glacier National Park's backcountry, a skiff plies the water of Quartz Lake. A team of fishermen traces out nets in a careful pattern along the near-shore lake bottom. Working at night under peaks newly covered with snow, the fishermen set and pull their gear, some 2,000 feet worth of gillnetting, by hand.

This is no clandestine commercial fishing venture. The fishermen are, in fact, scientists, and their nightly exertions are a National Park Service fisheries management tool in motion--an ecological line in the sand.

LINK (via:Montana State University)

Chicago flooding a threat to wash Asian Carp into Lake Michigan

Rains have brought the Des Plaines River on the east side of Chicago to major flood stage and a record flood crest was expected yesterday. Asian Carp are present in the Des Plaines River and the flood event is capable of washing significant numbers of Asian Carp from the Des Plaines River into a canal that feeds directly into Lake Michigan. 

LINK (via:Wunderground)

Due to the flooding brown trout are also being diverted into Lake Michigan.

This Fish Sailed From Japan to Washington on an Unmanned Tsunami Boat

On an epic two-year journey across the Pacific, a bait box in a Japanese boat turned into an aquarium when five striped beakfish made it their home.

The 6-metre fibreglass boat probably started off from Japan when the tsunami hit in March 2011. For some time, debris disloged by the giant wave has been turning up on the US west coast, usually loaded with marine plants and invertebrates such as limpets and barnacles. But this is the first time that live fish have been found after the 7600-kilometre journey.

LINK (via:Gizmodo)

Apparently they are also quite tasty.

Tighter boat regulations in Wyoming

Wyoming is requiring more boating inspections this year in an attempt to keep the state's waterways free of destructive aquatic invasive species.

A new rule mandates that any watercraft entering the state must be inspected before it is launched in a river, stream or lake.

LINK (via: The Wyoming Tribune Eagle)

Carp Confusion

We're winning the fight against Asian Carp!

The federal government is winning the battle to keep Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, according to an Obama administration official.

LINK (via: Ecowatch)

We're losing the fight against Asian Carp!

Asian carp are reproducing in more places and under more varied conditions than experts had believed they could, yet another reason to worry about the greedy invader’s potential to infest waterways and crowd out native species, scientists said Tuesday.

LINK (via: CBS 62 Detroit)