I Am the Common Carp, Destroyer of Aquatic Ecosystems
The murky green shores of the lagoons at the Chicago Botanic Garden are patrolled in desultory fashion by bands of massive greenish fish. Forward and back they course through the fringe of algae and waterweeds, occasionally rising to the surface to avail themselves of the more-oxygenated waters there, and to gape mutely at the visitors strolling by.
Thick and muscular, some of them approach the size of a human arm. Despite their obvious strength, they appear consummately benign. There’s a decidedly bovine quality to the manner in which they open and close their mouths as they suck up plant matter and invertebrates along the bottom. Even their name, common carp (Cyprinus carpio), speaks to their mundanity.
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) at Chicago Botanic Garden. Credit: Richard Pallardy
Yet, the inexorable advance of this seemingly harmless species has contributed to the degradation of ecosystems across the United States, where it has been documented in every state besides Alaska.
Native to fresh and brackish waters in Europe and Asia, the common carp was purposely introduced to the U.S. as a food fish in the 1800s. (It is not among the four species, colloquially referred to as Asian carp, that are causing damage of other kinds in U.S. waterways.) Some records suggest that introductions may have occurred as early as the 1830s; the fish had definitely been introduced to many bodies of water by the 1880s. Several domestic strains were introduced as well, including one that lacks scales (the ‘leather carp’) and one that sports enlarged, reflective scales (the ‘mirror carp’); it is also the species from which the colorful domestic koi is descended.
The threat that they pose extends to, and is part of the reason for, the 12-year-old shoreline restoration project at the Garden, the latest stage of which was unveiled last week. In 1998, it was determined that large portions of the 5.7 miles of shore surrounding the lagoons in the Garden had experienced substantial erosion. This was partly attributable to non-native plantings such as turf grass, which, due to their very shallow root systems, did not prevent soil from being washed away. The problem was exacerbated by the untidy lifestyle of the carp. Their habit of fossicking messily for food in the sediment at the shoreline uproots plants that knit the wet soil together, greatly eroding it. Additionally, when they breed in the spring and early summer, they thrash about violently in the shallows as they deposit their eggs on submerged vegetation.
These bottomfeeder bacchanals disrupt the breeding habits of native fish species that use similar habitats and further contribute to the turbidity and erosion caused by their foraging. The reduced clarity of the water has ramifications throughout the pond, making photosynthesis more difficult for aquatic plants, and reducing visibility for predators. The ecologists who engineered the restoration project (which began in earnest in 2000) had no intention of allowing the creatures to undo their hard work, which involved regrading the shore and establishing some 120,000 native plants (from 200 species). They installed a specially designed “benthic mesh” in the shallows; the mesh, made from weighted plastic, allowed plants to grow through its holes but mitigated the degustatory and copulatory depredations of the species by serving to contain the sediment. Though the lagoons may now be safe, relatives of the thwarted specimens in the Gardens continue to stir up trouble elsewhere.
At least in the United States, it’s all the government’s fault.
The concerted nature of their introduction here is somewhat remarkable. The U.S. Fish Commission imported common carp from Germany in 1877 in an effort to augment native food fisheries and by the next decade the effort was nationwide. Large numbers of the hardy fish were shipped via railroad and were often dumped straight into waterways from rail bridges in the Midwest. Though it is technically now illegal to introduce them, they continue to spread via natural waterway connections, flooding, and by the release of young fish, which are used as bait by anglers. They remain among the most commonly introduced species worldwide; they’re found almost everywhere besides the ice caps.
In addition to wreaking environmental havoc incidentally, they directly compete for resources with native bottom-feeders and have been directly responsible for declines in native stocks in some states. The aquatic plants they uproot are a major source of food for waterfowl and so the effects extend into the terrestrial world. The species can live for half a century and reproduces prolifically; one female may lay thousands of eggs (millions, according to some) in a single season, making it difficult to eliminate once established in a body of water.
Ironically, the IUCN now considers them vulnerable in their native range.
Original post - Recent posts