Keep us advised as to your success of removing carp. Here is a summary of a new method presented at the North American Lake Management Society annual meeting (Oct29-Nov02 2018, Cincinnati OH) authored by researchers in MN of baiting and trapping of carp.
Using Baited Box Nets to Remove Common Carp to Improve Water Quality in Shallow Lakes
Jordan Wein 1, Przemek Bajer 2, and Aaron Claus 1
1+Carp Solutions, Saint Paul, Minnesota; 2=University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Website for Carp Solutions:
http://carpsolutionsmn.com/Common carp are present in many shallow lakes across North America and can have significant negative impacts on nutrient and water quality parameters when in large numbers. Reducing common carp biomass has been shown to increase water clarity and aquatic vegetation as well as decrease phosphorus and chlorophyll levels. Although research shows that lakes can be restored by managing carp, implementation methods have been severely hindered by lack of effective removal techniques. Traditional methods such as lake drawdowns, poisoning, and commercial seining are often ineffective, harmful to native species, cost-prohibitive, and/or rely on a few specialized contractors that are difficult to secure. An innovative method has addressed this need via baiting and trapping using custom “box net” traps. This approach is consistent with scientific findings that common carp can be trained to aggregate in specific locations using corn as bait. The chief advantage of stationary box nets is that carp can be lured into them and effectively removed, even in lakes with debris on the bottom or where carp do not form natural aggregations. Further, baiting is simple enough that citizens can be trained to administer it, increasing the scalability and affordability of this strategy. Carp Solutions conducted proof-of-concept experiments in 4 Minnesota lakes between 7 and 120 hectares in 2017 which showed that 20–50% of carp were removed from each lake using only 1–4 nets, with no non-target impacts. Managing carp can be a great challenge, but the potential benefits are multi-faceted and box netting could be one solution.
