Australian carp trap shows promise

Common carp compete with native fish and often come to dominate freshwater fish communities. In a recent article in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management, a group of Australian researchers introduce a new trap that exploits an unusual attribute of the species—its tendency to jump out of the water to escape. The “Williams cage” can be installed in fishways in weirs or other constricted stream areas to capture carp as they migrate upstream during warmer months.

The cage includes two compartments, divided by jumping baffle. The jumping common carp are captured in the upper compartment, while non-jumping native Australian fish are periodically crowded into a lower compartment and automatically released. Results indicate that the trap successfully captured 88% of the common carp that came through a weir fishway, while allowing the passage of 99.9% of native fish.

Participants in the Redneck Carp Tournament try to get their nets under a high-flying carp in the Illinois River.

A silver carp leaps just out of range of the net of one of the participants in the Redneck Carp Tournament. The carpers would use only nets and clubs.

Bath, Ill. - Participants in the Redneck Carp Tournament dressed in wild clown costumes and having fun, but the serious purpose behind the event was to draw attention to a major environmental threat to all of America's waterways.