Carp invasion moves closer to Minnesota
By TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune
Last update: July 26, 2010 - 3:35 PM
Two of Minnesota's top elected officials said Monday that Asian carp are poised to invade state waters, and represent a major threat to the state's $2.2 billion fishing industry.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Attorney General Lori Swanson pledged to push politically and legally to get faster federal help for a variety of projects. They include short-term fish barriers to stop the fish from migrating further northward, and long-term research on methods to kill the fish or reduce their reproductive success.
Southern commerical fish farmers imported the bighead and silver carp to clean huge fish ponds in the 1970s, and some carp that escaped have been migrating north ever since. They are voracious eaters that consume vast quantities of aquatic plants and destroy food and habitat for native fish.
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