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Carp
Cyprinus Carpio
- Length:15 to 22 inches
- Weight:1 to 7 pounds
- Coloring:olive-green on back; yellowish
belly
- Common Names:German carp, European
carp, mirror carp, leather carp
- Found in Lakes:Michigan, Huron,
Ontario, Erie and Superior
- For centuries, Old World fish farmers have
esteemed the carp as an easily domesticated food fish, so immigrant farmers welcomed these
familiar fish when the U.S. Fish Commission first brought them to North America in the
late 1800s.
But the carp soon
left the farm for the continent's open lakes and streams. As a result, the carp harvest
from the Great Lakes has grown steadily since the first recorded catch in 1893. They
inhabit shallow, weedy shorelines, particularly along the southeastern end of Lake
Michigan and in lower Green Bay, where they are extremely abundant.
Many fishermen and duck hunters resent the
carp. These large, omnivorous fish browse on submerged vegetation -- uprooting plants on
which ducks feed, muddying the waters and destroying vegetative foods and cover needed by
other fish.
An increase in the commercial harvest of carp
could help alleviate these problems, and food scientists have long been trying to develop
better ways to process and market these fish. Its flesh is firm and palatable if it has
been grown in clean water, and Lake Michigan carp in years past were harvested and sold
commercially in a variety of forms -- as gefilte fish, for example. Unfortunately, many
Great Lakes carp today -- especially those from southern Green Bay and its tributary Fox
River -- contain relatively high levels of contaminants and so cannot be marketed as a
food fish.
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copyright 1998 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
Brook Trout illustration copyright 1998 Gina
Mikel
Carp photograph (c) Shedd Aquarium (e-mail)
Last updated 05 February 2002 by Seaman |