Asian carp are wreaking havoc on rivers across Indiana - most recently in Monroe County.
The invasive species has been detected in Salt Creek, sparking fears that the fish will make their way into nearby Lake Monroe. The Department of Natural Resources is alerting fishermen to try and prevent that from happening.
But if Asian carp do end up in the reservoir, there's not much the state can do to get rid of them.
Asian Carp Are Threatening Indiana Rivers
When Brendan Kearns takes people out on the Wabash River, he has one word of advice for them: duck.
"It's annoying," Kearns says. "You could be having a peaceful moment on the river, and all the sudden you can get smacked with a 12 pound fish on the head."
You could be having a peaceful moment on the river and all the sudden you can get smacked with a 12-pound fish on the head.
-Brendan Kearns, river conservationist
Kearns is pretty good at getting a kind of Asian carp called silver carp to put on a show. The theory is they jump out of the water when they're bothered by unusual vibrations, like the motor on his boat.
"What I'm doing now is I'm irritating them," Kearns says as he raises the motor on his boat. "I've got the motor up a bit and I'm making them more nervous than they naturally are."
It can be easy to feel on edge while on the Wabash with Kearns – fish are flying past or into your head and occasionally one ends up in the boat.
That's why he doesn't bring many people out on the river anymore.
"I love taking people on the river but we have to be very careful," Kearns says. "We've been in a couple situations where we've been on this boat running about 40 to 50 miles per hour and a silver carp would be going past your head."
Several years ago he captured a video of hundreds of carp jumping out of the Wabash at once.
Now imagine that happening somewhere like Lake Monroe.
"I think silver carp could kill recreation on all those lakes," Kearns says.
Containing The Invasive Species Proves Challenging
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is worried about how Asian carp could impact the state's rivers and lakes, too.
They recently discovered Asian carp in Salt Creek, just below the Lake Monroe dam – and it's not the first time it's happened.
"We've had reports of Asian carp actually jumping and anglers that have been fishing in the tail waters have actually sent us videos as early as 2010," says DNR Wildlife Biologist David Kittaka.
There hasn't been much success with containing Asian carp in Indiana's rivers and scientists are still struggling to figure out the best way to do so. Other states have installed control mechanisms like electrical barriers to try and prevent the carp from spreading.
"One of the areas of research in my lab is looking to improve electrical barrier technologies because there are some issues with current configuration in terms of fish being able to get through," says Purdue Aquatic Ecology Professor Reuben Goforth.
If the invasive species was to make its way into Lake Monroe, it could be there to stay. Â Asian carp reproduce rapidly and because the reservoir serves as Bloomington's water supply, the solutions would be limited.
"You can't drain the lake because it's the water supply for Bloomington, and just the sheer size of it and the purpose of the reservoir is for flood control, so to try to fix a fisheries problem is fairly low priority in terms of what the purpose of the reservoir is," Kittaka says.
There is some good news – Asian carp haven't been detected in any of the state's reservoirs and it would be hard for them to make their way into those large bodies of water on their own because of the dams.
Goforth says the biggest threat actually comes from anglers.
It's hard to distinguish young Asian carp from popular bait fish, so people could mistakenly introduce the species into lakes. A state law aims to reduce those chances by prohibiting the possession of live gizzard shad at many of Indiana's lakes.
There is no sort of silver bullet at this point saying if the carp are here this what they will do. That's sort of the Holy Grail at this point in terms of research.
-Reuben Goforth, Purdue University Aquatic Ecology professor
"Sometimes it's hard for experts to tell the difference when they're really small fish," Goforth says. "And so the best thing to do is just not to do any kind of transfer of fish among water bodies ever."
Because Asian carp is still a relatively new species to the U.S., Goforth says it's not clear what impact the fish have on the rivers they take over. There are so many factors at play in a river ecosystem that it's hard to tell if deteriorating quality of plant life and other fish are directly caused by the presence of Asian carp.
"There's no sort of silver bullet at this point saying if the carp are here this is what they will do," Goforth says. "That's sort of the Holy Grail at this point in terms of research."
Back on the Wabash in Terre Haute, the fish haven't stopped Kearns from spending time on his beloved river.
And he has his own ways of learning to cope with the carp.
"What I like to do in areas like this I like to get them to jump and they get stuck in trees," Kearns says.
You can actually eat the fish, but they're bony and often don't have much meat.
