Common Carp Abundance, Biomass, and Removal from Dewey and Clear Lakes on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge: Does Trapping and Removing Carp Payoff
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Common carp Cyprinus carpio is a nonnative invasive nuisance species to North America. Many authors have documented the detrimental affects of common carp invasions on waterfowl habitats (Chamberlain 1948; Robel 1961), game fish habitat (Cahn 1929), and the overall decline in native fishes (Bernstein and Olson 2001; Koehn 2004). Common carp reduce water quality by mobilizing nutrients and increasing turbidity; therefore, increasing phytoplankton biomass and reducing zooplankton biomass and rooted aquatic vegetation (Lougheed et al. 1998). Common carp are capable of rapidly colonizing shallow lakes and altering a body of water from a clear stable state, dominated by submergent vegetation to a more turbid state, dominated by phytoplankton (Northcote 1988; Parkos et al. 2003). Management and control of common carp has been well documented through much of North America (Meronek et al. 1996; Wydoski and Wiley 1999) with millions of dollars invested on research and control (Pimentel et al. 2000). Removal projects included mechanical harvest by netting (Ritz 1987; Pinto et al. 2005), water level manipulation to disrupt spawning (Summerfelt 1999), exclusion from spawning habitat (Lougheed and Chow-Fraser 2001), and piscicide application (Meronek et al. 1996). Northern pike Esox lucius have additionally been used as a biological tool to control common carp recruitment in the Sandhill lakes in Nebraska (Paukert et al. 2003). All methods of carp control have had varying degrees of success (Meronek et al. 1996). Common carp gained access to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Valentine National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) lake system through Gordon Ditch, which was dug during the 1930's (Wanner 2009). The ditch was plugged shortly after completion to eliminate fish movement onto the Refuge.
Common Carp Abundance, Biomass, and Removal from Dewey and Clear Lakes on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge: Does Trapping and Removing Carp Payoff