U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Jerrold Federer (left) stands ready to net fish with La Crosse FRO biologist Heidi Keuler (right) while a camerman from the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) Japanese television network (center) films the action during electrofishing efforts to detect Asian carps in the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois. - Courtesy photo by David Hirsch

In today’s high technology world, news is quickly transmitted far and wide to inform others around the globe of noteworthy events.  Such was the case when a New York City-based  televison news production team from Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, accompanied staff from the La Crosse FRO as they conducted surveillance for bighead carp and silver carp in the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois. 

This film coverage was combined with additional footage, taken upstream at an electrical fish barrier and at downstream sites where these Asian carp species are abundant, to produce a 4.5-minute feature on the problems posed by these invasive fish in Midwestern rivers. 

This report was recently televised via satellite throughout Japan and around the world on the bilingual (Japanese-English) NHK News Watch 9 program.  Interviews with recreational boaters, commercial fishermen, and conservationists (including FRO fishery biologist Mark Steingraeber) stressed the adverse impacts these leaping exotic fish pose to regional navigation, economies, and ecosystems in North America.  

The native range of bighead carp and silver carp includes vast continental drainages in eastern Asia where these species evolved and reproduce in lengthy, uninterrupted river reaches.  Although these species have also been introduced to Japan, they do not seem to pose as great a threat here as in the U.S., due in part to the relatively short, high-gradient drainages that characterize this small island nation.   

The opportunity to highlight the complex issues posed by the introduction of these fish in the U.S. to the diverse international audience served by this television network should help to raise public awareness around the globe of the need to prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species.