Carp Solution: Export ‘Kentucky Tuna’ To…

The Prez recently signed a law banning the import of bighead carp into our fair waters. Bigheads are the ones whose eyes look like they’re too far down. Silver carp, already banned , are the ones that jump out of the water.

Our question: like it makes a huge difference? Guess bans are an obvious step, but what we really need for these carp is…professional tournaments. The saltwater kind – catch, kill, eat. Or, in this case, maybe catch, kill, bury.

Well, if not that, then a market of some kind (maybe like for the pikeminnows in OR/WA?), and it looks like we have one: China. Seriously.

The Chinese like our versions of their carp better than their own, and according to a recent article, this demand might mean that we end up flying tons of these nuisance fish back there way. Interesting. Couple quick excerpts:

> Under the plan, the carp will be trucked from fisheries in Iowa and northern Illinois to the [MidAmerica St. Louis] airport, where they will be shipped fresh in refrigerated containers aboard air cargo planes bound for China.

> Asian carp grown in America – which are sometimes known as Silverfin or Kentucky Tuna [really?] – are prized in China because such fish offer a more wild and “natural” taste than carp raised in China, where the muddy, polluted waterways and lakes have hurt sales of locally grown fish.

> If the deal moves forward, the carp and other fish would be stored in a 62,500-square-foot warehouse worth up to $6 million that will be built next year by Wall Street investor John Hewitt.