More Carp DNA Found in Lake Erie

Silver carp.

From Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay and Sandusky River comes bad news about Asian carp.  Twenty of 150 water samples tested positive for the presence of silver carp environmental DNA.

DNA was collected as part of extensive sampling effort conducted earlier this summer for Asian carp in Sandusky Bay and Maumee Bay in western Lake Erie. Maumee Bay DNA results are being analyzed.

On the positive side, no Asian carp were found through intensive electrofishing and test netting.

These areas are among the most productive in Lake Erie, the warmest and shallowest of the Great Lakes. As a consequence, Asian carp invasion could be catastrophic for bass, walleye, and yellow perch fisheries. Through their filter feeding, the exotics eliminate food needed for forage species, collapsing the food chain.

Read the full story here about the DNA discoveries.

Go here to see a video about how to identify bighead and silver carp. If they don’t recognize them, anglers who seine their own bait could accidentally transport these invaders from one fishery to another.