LETTER: Video sheds new light on Asian carp menace

Talk about it

To the Editor:

Friday, June 15, the Iowa Public Television program “Market to Market” presented a very good segment on the jumping Asian carp.

I write “very good” because I learned something new I never heard mentioned before. They are not like our typical American carp.

Asian carp (bighead and silver) create such competition for our game fish because they eat the same food — plankton.

The story continued with a spotlight on Stoller Fisheries, Spirit Lake, Iowa. Larry Stoller, president: “We are set up; in fact, we’ve been processing Asian carp from the Illinois area for probably five or six years now.”

Watch the seven-minute video at the Market to Market website.

Your editorials don’t use terms like “gut eaters” and “taco benders.” Why resort to such fish racism by calling Asian carp “Muck stirrers”?

Joe Larscheid, chief of fisheries, Iowa DNR, directly contradicts you: “The Common Carp that has been here since the 1880s ... they’re mucking up on the bottom. These don’t. They’re eating the same thing that really salmon eat.”

The day may come when Mitchell promotes tourism by encouraging the sport of carp-catching, and the heroes return to the dock to give away these apparently normal-tasting fish to needy folks, and therefore helping everybody out.

What’s next? Local carp-catching tournaments! More exciting than pledging money for how far you walk! Cheaper than hydroplane races! More politically correct than dwarf-tossing!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Tags: asian carp, opinion, letters, fishing