07-15-2004, 07:26 PM
Fishing column in Tribune Outdoor's section Thursday
Fishing: With carp choking Utah Lake, it's time to eat
Brett Prettyman
Salt Lake Tribune Columnist
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is looking for people with a taste for carp meat, a lot of carp meat.
Recent trapping and tagging efforts at Utah Lake show the carp population not only dominates fish life in the lake but it also prevents other species from thriving.
Chris Keleher, local coordinator for the June Sucker Recovery Program, watched as workers hauled in more than 24,000 carp in 15 days, with some nets holding more than 4,000 fish. The fish were tagged and released. Another 10,300 carp were caught to see how many recaptures there were in an effort to figure out the carp population in the lake. The team turned up 208 fish with tags out of that 10,300, for just a 0.8 percent return.
Keleher says he will wait for official results on numbers to say just how many carp are in the lake, but he does feel confident that the non-native species makes up more than 90 percent of fish biomass in Utah Lake.
Keleher's job is to find ways to build June sucker populations so the native Utah fish can be removed from the endangered species list.
Right now that means finding a way to reduce carp.
"Having one species represent such a large portion of the biomass leads to a really unbalanced and low-diversity kind of ecosystem," Keleher said. "I would like for us to be able to reduce the carp population by 75 percent. We need at least that much to see an ecological response in the system."
While there are no estimates on how much it would cost to undertake such a huge program, it probably would run into the millions of dollars. Because carp could probably never be entirely removed from Utah Lake, the removal efforts would have to continue for years; much like the current National Park Service project
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
------------------------------------------------------------------------ to keep lake trout numbers in check at Yellowstone Lake.
Biologists bonk the lake trout on the head and throw them back in the lake in Yellowstone, but that is something officials could not do at Utah Lake because of the warm and shallow water.
"We are looking for some kind of use for the fish," Keleher said. "We don't want to waste them."
A reduction in carp would allow for vegetation to recover in the lake and that would help the June suckers and sport fish alike.
Tom Pettengill, sport fishing director for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, says Utah Lake is underused by anglers, and it might be in part because of the perception that carp are the only fish there.
Catfish are one of the main reasons anglers head for Utah Lake, but there are plenty of other sport fish opportunities.
"We probably don't have another fishery with as many big walleye, and there is a terrific amount of white bass and the largemouth bass that fit into the trophy category as well," Pettengill said. "The value of Utah Lake as a sport fishery could really take off if efforts were made to reduce the carp."
Keleher said a decision on whether to attempt the carp reduction will need to be made late this year or early in 2005.
[signature]
Fishing: With carp choking Utah Lake, it's time to eat
Brett Prettyman
Salt Lake Tribune Columnist
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District is looking for people with a taste for carp meat, a lot of carp meat.
Recent trapping and tagging efforts at Utah Lake show the carp population not only dominates fish life in the lake but it also prevents other species from thriving.
Chris Keleher, local coordinator for the June Sucker Recovery Program, watched as workers hauled in more than 24,000 carp in 15 days, with some nets holding more than 4,000 fish. The fish were tagged and released. Another 10,300 carp were caught to see how many recaptures there were in an effort to figure out the carp population in the lake. The team turned up 208 fish with tags out of that 10,300, for just a 0.8 percent return.
Keleher says he will wait for official results on numbers to say just how many carp are in the lake, but he does feel confident that the non-native species makes up more than 90 percent of fish biomass in Utah Lake.
Keleher's job is to find ways to build June sucker populations so the native Utah fish can be removed from the endangered species list.
Right now that means finding a way to reduce carp.
"Having one species represent such a large portion of the biomass leads to a really unbalanced and low-diversity kind of ecosystem," Keleher said. "I would like for us to be able to reduce the carp population by 75 percent. We need at least that much to see an ecological response in the system."
While there are no estimates on how much it would cost to undertake such a huge program, it probably would run into the millions of dollars. Because carp could probably never be entirely removed from Utah Lake, the removal efforts would have to continue for years; much like the current National Park Service project
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
------------------------------------------------------------------------ to keep lake trout numbers in check at Yellowstone Lake.
Biologists bonk the lake trout on the head and throw them back in the lake in Yellowstone, but that is something officials could not do at Utah Lake because of the warm and shallow water.
"We are looking for some kind of use for the fish," Keleher said. "We don't want to waste them."
A reduction in carp would allow for vegetation to recover in the lake and that would help the June suckers and sport fish alike.
Tom Pettengill, sport fishing director for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, says Utah Lake is underused by anglers, and it might be in part because of the perception that carp are the only fish there.
Catfish are one of the main reasons anglers head for Utah Lake, but there are plenty of other sport fish opportunities.
"We probably don't have another fishery with as many big walleye, and there is a terrific amount of white bass and the largemouth bass that fit into the trophy category as well," Pettengill said. "The value of Utah Lake as a sport fishery could really take off if efforts were made to reduce the carp."
Keleher said a decision on whether to attempt the carp reduction will need to be made late this year or early in 2005.
[signature]