Carp Virus

[Bugatti]

ps.
VooDoo, if you and I aren't careful from now on, we might be charged a "Padlock Levy" soon

Cheers, Buglock

[re-tyred]

Wonder if anyone has tried smoking them.
https://furiousgrill.com/how-to-smoke-carp/

[VooDoo]

ps.
VooDoo, if you and I aren't careful from now on, we might be charged a "Padlock Levy" soon

Cheers, Buglock

You better watch where you park your Bugatti in SA .. we voodoo magicians have solutions as to how to unlock them

[OkeyDokey]

The problem here is that you are saying that the mismanagement of waterways and other human based factors are the sole reason for the demise of natives while saying that others are solely blaming carp. The reality is that all of these factors combined are the problem and to say that one of these things isn't the problem because the other exists is blatantly wrong.

Now onto other introduced species, I'm going to ignore roach and tench because they really aren't that prolific and will just focus on carp, redfin and trout. All three of these species cause harm in Australia, it's undeniable, but to say that carp shouldn't get a bad rap because the others don't is foolish. That's like saying these two guys got away with murder so we should release this guy from jail. The two main reasons carp are looked at so poorly compared to the others comes down to two things in my opinion. The first is how the fish is looked at by the public, both trout and redfin are seen as sporting fish so people are more open to fishing for them and in particular spending money to fish for them and the second is to do with where they can inhabit and the number of ecosystems they can damage combined with where those systems are. Carp can live just about everywhere whereas redfin and trout are much more limited to where they can live and then these systems generally don't hold as many of the sporting natives, this isn't to say that nearly wiping out baitfish species isn't bad it's just that it goes largely unnoticed by the angling community. I don't agree with trout stocking and the protections in place but that's an issue for another topic. In case you want to whine about carp being the only introduced species treated this way check out what the restrictions around tilapia in Queensland are.

Finally, the talk of privately owned carp fisheries in Australia is laughable. Why would anyone pay to fish for carp when you can catch them just about anywhere and there is already numerous venues where you can catch multiple trophy carp a day for free. For this to be a successful venture there would have to be extremely limited carp fishing elsewhere and the only way to achieve that would be to eradicate them from other waterways, something you stated to be impossible. This doesn't even begin to talk about the shift in mentality required for the majority of anglers to actually want to target carp let alone pay for the privilege to do so.

Before you go on about me hating carp or some other garbage, I've spent a far bit of time targeting carp on artificials and quite enjoy catching them but that doesn't change the fact that we would be better off without them.
IMG_4058 edit web.jpg

Thanks Mazman - decent feedback. I totally agree that it's a combination of factors - public apology for not wording my statement clearly enough.

On reflection I would definitely retract my bullet points purely because of the abnormal number of carp here. Those points should be verbally discussed rather than written. I have my opinions but they are based on nominal numbers of carp. That said, I have always been in favour of culling.

Privately owned fisheries - I didn't specifically call for private carp fisheries. I did ask the question of whether having recreational fisheries (all species), would help, if they provided more resource, bolstered control effort and created revenue to go back into NCCP. Yes, I included trophy carp as they are compelling for some if we're talking about $$memberships. BUT, you're on point - it's highly unlikely people will pay to fish when we have so many free locations already and in hindsight, big carp hunters are not going to part with $$ if the stock is temporary. Yep, my bad but has no one in history ever risked presenting a left field idea?

Call you a carp hater?? Nah, it's not the reason I joined this forum

[Bugatti]

[Texas]

Regarding selling Carp, yes commercial guys can. You can't farm them though.
The current market is mostly for pet food and the price is so low you need to catch vast quantities. The only way you can do that is with electro fishing and that has gone out of favour with Dwelp and other fishing authorities. Mostly this is due to potential harm to other swamp creatures. Obviously netting would also be a no no. That just leaves line fishing, again this could not be longlines left for hours. It would have to be short multi hook lines that are attended while in the water. However price is everything as that would be labour intensive. Europeans and Asians do eat them. With a bit of promotion and a steady supply the market could be developed. If a small bounty was paid it would help get it going. It is really a matter of Dwelp and fisheries management thinking outside the box. It was not many years ago Parrot fish and wirra cod were thrown back by profishers. Now both fetch high prices sometimes higher than snapper. There is no reason the same couldn't happen to carp. The parrot fish and wirra cod were a bye catch of already profitable fisheries so there was a steady supply and the market slowly grew. Carp is different because we have chucked out pretty much all the commercials from our inland water ways, so there would be a need to make the business profitable for a new fisheries. Considering money is already spent on carp reduction , why not pay a private company to catch and sell them, along with some promotions on how to cook and eat them, to get it established.
If you really want to go outside the box, you could allow recreational anglers to hand their fish to commercial companies with no money exchanging hands.

At my local fish monger carp are $6.99kg- they say they are farmed
I know we had carp farms in the 1800's Or early 1900's, floods causing their escape into waterways.
I don't know if they are still farmed or not
Cheers Gra

[Texas]

Ok I got some facts
The first successfully established population was in Melbourne's Royal Botatanic gardens in 1859. Different strains were released in NSW. Some time in the 1950's the Boolarra carp farm cross bred NSW carp with Victorian carp creating the cyprinus carpio. This carp was released into the Murray Darling basin & is believed to have caused the explosion in carp numbers.
Locally grown Japanese Koi strains were also released into the waterways reasonably recently 1976 - 2008
So they didn't escape (although floods would have helped spread them), they were legally released for food & fishing
Cheers Gra

[re-tyred]

Pretty sure it is illegal to farm them these days

[re-tyred]

$7kg would give the fisher person, around $2-3kg which is too low to catch with hook and line. At about twice that it might become viable provided they could catch 100+kg a day, 2-3 days a week. Not being a carp fisherman I don't really know how many a single person working with a few lines with perhaps 20 hooks a line would catch.

[Texas]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the carp we have here are some especially prolific strain that was bred to put on weight really fast and is probably nothing like the varieties present in Europe.

That's the Boolarra carp, the cyprinus carpio