Sorry nothing personal to you & your line of work. I was talking the state, local & federal governments as a whole. Anyway, what about my buddy's idea with barge? How does one go about submitting individual ideas to the proper agency where it might actually be listened to & considered?[/quote]
No worries, hear it all the time, so easy to blame the govt for everything. Truth is, as with most aquatic invasive species, that they are the product of private industry putting profits over the thought of a natural ecosystem for all of us to enjoy. This is all off of the top of my head, so please correct this if I've mispoken, the asian carp were brought over to the U.S. as a means to clean up catfish ponds (wholesale catish, not fishing) in Arkansas (please double check me on the state). When a flood event occured, the carp when over the levee and into our beloved MS and its tributaries. It was either late last year or early this year that a federal judge stopped the closure at the Great Lakes, gotta keep commerce open. That is what I see as the most critical issue at this point, keep them out of the Great Lakes. As to complete erradication from the waterways of the U.S., I'd say that's a long shot, but with anything else, as soon as there is a financial benefit to it, business will come around. We are starting to see some of this already, several New Orleans establishments are trying to market the carp as table fare, other company's are looking into using the carp as fish food, which would be an enourmous benefit to the North Atlantic, whose fish stock has been annihilated just to make food for farm rasied salmon. Let me look into a place for public comment, try checking the federal registry. I'm a plant biologist, so please remember that when you slam me for bad data #-o, just filling in on what I think I know.
On a different note on the asian carp topic, they are nasty, nasty, nasty. I've done more research on the MS river than I care too and these things are everywhere, always a nice thump on the bottom of the boat if you're lucky, if not it's in the boat!