Jump Around!

I guess I took it for granted that this was already in the rule book but and email today from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service clued me in that they have banned the import and transport of Silver and Largescale Carp AKA Jumping Carp. You might already know that these large fish have a habit of leaping from the water in mass when they feel the vibrations of an outboard motor. This can be cool to watch from a distance but getting smacked in the head by a 60 lb fish while speeding along in your bass tracker couldn't be much fun.

"Slowing the spread of these carp is necessary to protect our native aquatic species," said H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Although silver carp are established in parts of the Mississippi watershed, we will work to keep their impacts minimized and prevent additional populations from taking hold."

Silver carp, native to Asia, were introduced in the United States in the early 1970s for use as algae control agents in sewage lagoons and fishery production ponds, but escaped into surrounding waters.

The silver carp have established themselves in the Mississippi River Basin but are not currently cultured in the United States. Silver carp are difficult to handle and transport because of their tendency to jump: growing up to three feet long and 60 pounds in weight, silver carp have leaped into moving boats injuring people and damaging equipment.

Biologists are concerned that silver carp could spread throughout large rivers and lakes in the U.S. and compete with native species for food and habitat, having both ecological and economic impacts and threatening, for example, the multimillion-dollar Great Lakes fishery.

Here is a link to the USFW press release and if you havn't seen them be sure to check out this video via Youtube. Just for fun here is a link to the video for "Jump Around"