Environment

Minnesota, Wisconsin DNR tackle invasive carp on Mississippi

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FILE - In this June 13, 2012, file photo, Asian carp, jolted by an electric current from a research boat, jump from the Illinois River near Havana, Ill. Outgoing Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has rejected Michigan's offer of $8 million to help support a project to keep invasive carp from establishing themselves in the Great Lakes. Rauner, a Republican, said in a letter in Dec. 2018 to term-limited Gov. Rick Snyder that Michigan's offer to support operations and maintenance at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill., "isn't of much use" until after the improvement project there is completed in 10 years. (AP Photo/John Flesher, File)

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Fisheries crews from Wisconsin and Minnesota plan to gather near La Crosse next month and attempt a new technique to remove invasive carp from the Mississippi River.

The so-called modified unified method combines netting and herding techniques to drive and concentrate fish from a large area into a small zone for removal.

The effort will be focused on taking out bighead, grass and silver carp. They are non-native species that have wreaked ecological havoc in the Illinois, Missouri and Ohio river systems and are spreading north in the Mississippi.

The work is scheduled to begin April 5. It will be conducted by the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Journal Sentinel reported.

It will be the first time the modified unified method has been used in Wisconsin or Minnesota waters, including the first time it has been used anywhere across the country as an early detection and rapid response technique, according to the Wisconsin DNR.

The intensive effort was designed as part of a response to the capture of 39 silver carp and 12 grass carp in the La Crosse area in March 2020. Eight additional invasive carp have been captured in this year.

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