Experts bracing for Asian Carp invasion

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Local wild life experts are bracing for an Asian Carp invasion.

So what could this mean?

What it could do is jeopardize the habitat for the bass and walleye in Lake Erie, and bring different kind of fish that jump right into the boat.

Tom Marks runs a Charter Boat fishing business and took News 4 out for a few casts on Lake Erie. He fears the day that Asian Carp ever make to this end of the Great Lakes.

"You'll laugh. It's funny when you first see it, you see these carp jumping in the boat hitting people," Marks said.

Asian Carp were accidentally introduced to the Mississippi River basin and have thrived ever since.

Marks said, "They're a large, fast growing fish, and they eat 40% of their body weight a day and they grow up to 100 pounds."

The problem is you can't catch them because they only eat plankton, a lot of it, leaving less of it for the young sport fish like walleye, and small-mouth bass, which are big business on Lake Erie.

There is a delicate balance here in Lake Erie, and a lot of people were concerned when the gobby fish and the zebra mussel first came in. But their effects have not been all bad. With this Asian Carp, it could be much different.

"They certainly have the potential to disrupt the whole ecosystem in a very profound, very basic level," said Mark Clapsadl, SUNYCAB Great Lakes Center.

Researchers at Buffalo State College's Great Lakes Center are watching from afar as the US Department of Fish and Wildlife operates an electronic barrier in a ship canal near Chicago, to keep the Asian Carp from swimming from the Mississippi waters to the Great Lakes

Marks says some of the carp have already slipped in to Lake Michigan.

"They never really engineered what the ecological barrier would be," Marks explained.

Clapsadl said, "Right now, it's a very big question mark. We don't know what will happen or when."

"This is our legacy is what we do to the great lakes," Marks said.

The DEC is urging federal officials to do what they can at the other end of the Great Lakes to keep them out.

Just last month Senator Chuck Schumer called for a federal study about what the economic impact could be.

Watch video to see news 4's George Richert answer some questions about the Asian Carp.