Saturday, June 26, 2010

Kissin' Carp

Common carp, Cyprinus carpio

It's pretty hard to believe that the United States didn't have any common carp prying our natural waters before their introduction in 1831.  They're probably our most ubiquitous fish here in Ohio- there aren't many water bodies of significant size that don't have common carp.  I've never eaten them, but they are quite popular in other parts of the world.   They were even eaten here in the US, but we have seemed to have lost our taste for them- I wonder why?  It is it perhaps because they are able to persist in the nastiest of our waterways?  

These fish were swarming yesterday in the O'shaugnessy Reservoir at the Columbus Zoo.  A dad had brought a loaf of white bread, and his kids had a blast feeding these huge fish.  Weston watched intently, thinking they were just another part of the zoo spectacle, not realizing that these fish don't live in a tank.
Tom

6 comments:

  1. I watched the same spectacle when I was Weston’s age. Some of these fish may be the same ones I saw way back then.

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  2. Excellent Steve, yes, they are massive, large fish. I won't say they're old. :)

    Tom

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  3. These pose a huge problem on the coast, where they get trapped in waterfowl impoundments during the winter, and then 6 months later, have a sudden die off as the water becomes too hot/anoxic/shallow. Wading birds feed on them, and too often, avian botulism breaks out.

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  4. I suppose the same thing may happen in the Lake Erie Marshes. I've seen plenty of carp mucking around the low water without much hope of surviving.

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  5. The Pymatuning Reservoir on the Ohio/Pennsylvania line consists of two lakes separated by a spillway. The carp in the upper lake congregate at the top of the spillway to gobble down bread handouts from tourists. I didn't know this occurred in other locations as well. Keep Weston away from the edge, Tom; he could get suckered to death if he fell in! Hey, that gives me an idea for a horror movie...vampires, shmam-pires.

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  6. I just read an article last night in the magazine about the West, "High Country News," that showed a very similar image of carp waiting for tourists' handouts in Lake Mojave on the Arizona/Nevada border. They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

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