WEBVTT 00:05.724 --> 00:08.089 - Today we are doing some field tests of the 00:08.089 --> 00:10.565 swimming abilities of Asian carp. 00:10.565 --> 00:12.911 And, behind me right now we have silver carp, 00:12.911 --> 00:15.154 which are one of the two species of Asian carp 00:15.154 --> 00:17.584 in which we're most interested. 00:17.584 --> 00:20.113 The Corp of Engineers is concerned, of course, 00:20.113 --> 00:22.651 because these animals are dispersing throughout 00:22.651 --> 00:25.494 the Mississippi River, they are getting close 00:25.494 --> 00:28.760 to the Great Lakes, and they are capable of moving 00:28.760 --> 00:32.622 through locks and dams and other rivering structures. 00:32.622 --> 00:35.872 Their swimming abilities are not known, 00:36.012 --> 00:38.429 and some people have suggested that they're 00:38.429 --> 00:41.360 quite powerful swimmers, like salmon, 00:41.360 --> 00:43.952 but our own observations are that they are 00:43.952 --> 00:46.937 relatively weak swimmers, and this is a good thing, 00:46.937 --> 00:50.020 because it means that we can contain, 00:50.995 --> 00:55.162 flush and possibly manage these animals by generating flows 00:56.702 --> 00:59.751 that are in excess of their swimming abilities. 00:59.751 --> 01:02.219 We take the fish from the river here, 01:02.219 --> 01:06.386 we are working on an offshoot of the Mississippi River, 01:06.596 --> 01:10.207 we put them in this mobile swim tunnel with local water, 01:10.207 --> 01:14.115 we crank the speed up in the tunnel, and observe how long 01:14.115 --> 01:17.541 they're able to swim at a particular speed, and we develop 01:17.541 --> 01:20.311 swimming endurance models for the fish. 01:20.311 --> 01:23.162 This approach, of using a mobile swim tunnel, 01:23.162 --> 01:26.995 is very unusual, and, based on the information 01:27.464 --> 01:29.868 I've seen, it's only been attempted 01:29.868 --> 01:33.231 in four or five studies during the past 40 years. 01:33.231 --> 01:36.171 And it makes a heck of a lot of sense 01:36.171 --> 01:38.718 because you don't subject the fish 01:38.718 --> 01:40.835 to the stress of being moved around 01:40.835 --> 01:43.600 or transported in small containers of water. 01:43.600 --> 01:46.700 You take them out of the river, you put them in the tank, 01:46.700 --> 01:49.570 and you test them when they're fresh 01:49.570 --> 01:53.570 and, really, unstressed from being moved around. 01:54.783 --> 01:57.824 ^- I'm here, working with the Army Corp of Engineers 01:57.824 --> 02:01.587 ^to study the swimming performance of Asian carp. 02:01.587 --> 02:04.542 And, that's of a real sincere interest to us, 02:04.542 --> 02:06.255 up in the north end of the river, 02:06.255 --> 02:08.965 because the carps have not invaded that 02:08.965 --> 02:11.907 piece of the river yet, and it's pretty clear to us that the 02:11.907 --> 02:15.181 water flow through the locks and dams is holding them back. 02:15.181 --> 02:17.254 It's extremely important for everybody to do 02:17.254 --> 02:20.245 whatever they can to prevent these destructive fish 02:20.245 --> 02:22.806 from getting into our ecosystems. 02:22.806 --> 02:25.082 They're voracious, they impact the very base 02:25.082 --> 02:28.872 of the food chain, and they jump, which is not good either. 02:28.872 --> 02:30.555 Nothing good about 'em. 02:30.555 --> 02:33.356 - Asian carp were brought here in the 1970s, and they are 02:33.356 --> 02:36.829 believed to have escaped some time during the 1980s. 02:36.829 --> 02:39.628 We began to see them in the lower Mississippi River 02:39.628 --> 02:43.628 in the early 1990s, in fact 1991 to be specific. 02:45.271 --> 02:48.271 They are spreading into almost every 02:48.645 --> 02:52.312 contiguous habitat of the Mississippi River. 02:52.766 --> 02:55.348 Although they can only spawn in flowing water 02:55.348 --> 02:58.199 of the main channel, they can survive 02:58.199 --> 03:00.750 almost anywhere, and, in fact, they grow 03:00.750 --> 03:04.361 very rapidly in places native fish can't grow, 03:04.361 --> 03:07.528 like small, shallow flood plain pools, 03:07.542 --> 03:10.022 habitats that are so small and so warm 03:10.022 --> 03:12.939 that they would kill a native fish. 03:14.835 --> 03:18.427 They eat plankton at any extraordinary rate. 03:18.427 --> 03:22.123 They are actually able to deplete zooplankton. 03:22.123 --> 03:25.246 The water body that we're on today, Forest Home Chute, 03:25.246 --> 03:28.303 has relatively low concentrations of zooplankton, 03:28.303 --> 03:31.486 which is the animal component of plankton, 03:31.486 --> 03:35.412 because of the plankton-eating abilities of these fish. 03:35.412 --> 03:38.912 They are believed to compete very strongly 03:39.768 --> 03:43.081 with our native fishes, particularly planktivorous fish, 03:43.081 --> 03:46.174 like our own North American paddlefish. 03:46.174 --> 03:47.996 - Just a little bit about the impact 03:47.996 --> 03:50.996 of Asian carp on commercial fishing. 03:51.305 --> 03:54.992 I've been fishing for probably 40 or more years, 03:54.992 --> 03:59.075 and the Asian carp have made a devastating impact 03:59.235 --> 04:03.402 on commercial fishing as far as some of our species. 04:03.982 --> 04:06.160 They directly compete with buffalo, 04:06.160 --> 04:09.493 paddlefish, and some of the common carp. 04:10.699 --> 04:13.282 And, our catch of some of these 04:15.399 --> 04:18.128 species has been dramatically reduced 04:18.128 --> 04:21.456 because of Asian carp, especially the silver carp, 04:21.456 --> 04:23.046 bigheads are a problem, but the silver, 04:23.046 --> 04:25.546 I think, is more of a problem. 04:25.821 --> 04:28.565 They're infested in every body of water, 04:28.565 --> 04:30.153 I think, we have that's connected to 04:30.153 --> 04:32.429 the Mississippi River on the lower end. 04:32.429 --> 04:36.596 And, I don't foresee any way of ever reducing the numbers 04:37.434 --> 04:40.619 enough to make any difference, really, here. 04:40.619 --> 04:43.894 Well, I think the people on the upper Miss 04:43.894 --> 04:45.450 need to really pay close attention 04:45.450 --> 04:48.950 to what's happened down here in the south. 04:49.199 --> 04:52.443 It's not something to be taken lightly, 04:52.443 --> 04:55.443 especially if you fish for a living.