Fishing pier, 3/6/12 (Kevin Kane)
Jeff Kopaska is a fisheries
biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and a member of Friends
of AHHP and Ames Anglers. Here are his comments about the common carp in the
park. Thanks Jeff.
As the resident fisheries biologist, I would like to chime in on "The
common carp causes few or no problems in the main lake but when it invades the
shallow wetlands they stir up the bottom sediment and the reduced transparency
of the water inhibits plant growth." In the main lake, the common carp
cause the same issues in areas where the sediment is more silt or muck, such as
the south-west corner. In addition to stirring up the sediment, they also
dislodge rooted aquatic vegetation in their feeding efforts. These activities
are both detrimental, but are not as damaging as they are in the shallow
wetlands. Angler observations last year indicated a substantially smaller
amount of rooted vegetation along the perimeter of the lake. This cannot be
directly attributed to the carp, but they may have been a cause. If this
pattern continues, we may see a reduction in water clarity in the main lake in
the future.
Iowa's eutrophic lakes can generally support 600-700 pounds per acre of fish.
At times, carp can overwhelm these systems, comprising up to 600 pounds per
acre themselves. This is very detrimental to our native fish fauna,
particularly buffalo (largemouth and smallmouth), suckers and carpsuckers, but
also bluegills, catfish, bass and crappies. Ada Hayden is a marginally
eutrophic system, so its biomass is probably less than 600 pounds per acre.
Regardless of the total biomass the system can handle, it undoubtedly is
healthier with the majority of that in bluegills, bass, catfish, crappies, and
suckers instead of carp.
An additional comment from Erv: Anglers can help by not releasing carp that
they catch from the lake.
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