Carp Virus

[4liters]

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.

[4liters]

I did read that somewhere, here you go:

Although the Prospect and Yanco strains of carp were well established in the Murray–Darling Basin by the 1960s, the introduction of the Boolara strain to this system is thought to be the catalyst for the massive expansion of carp in Australia. Some of the Boolara strain carp were released in Gippsland, Victoria in the early 1960s. In 1964, carp were reported near Mildura and over the next five years they had spread from this source into the Murray–Darling system. These fish were later shown to be the Boolara strain. The heavy flooding of the Murray–Darling Basin in 1974/5 (and again in 1993) also helped the rapid spread of carp throughout the basin but it is probably a combination of events that contributed to the expansion, involving several or many of the dispersal methods listed. There is little doubt that the rapid expansion was also assisted by the more invasive nature of the Boolara strain. Interbreeding of the Boolara carp with the already present Prospect and Yanco strains of carp resulted in increased fitness of the cross-bred offspring and a mosaic of carp ancestry across its range.

https://pestsmart.org.au/pestsmart-fact ... australia/

[cobby]

You're missing 1 key criteria when it comes to water quality and turbitity, every single 'prestige' carp waterway in Europe and the UK I've ever seen has a rock base with a silt layer, cover a rather limited area and populations are actively culled to promote the ridiculous sized footballs they get. The Murray darling basin is largely clay based with a silt layer in an area thats larger than Scotland, England and Wales combined. An area far to large to manage with active number control measures. Your coarse love affair with Carp is blindingly obvious, your instant dismissal of any contrary views only enforces that.

The only good Carp in Australia is a dead one

[Bugatti]

One virus at a time?

I totally agree Smokey , , , ,

One Bug at a time

Cheers , , , , Bug

Cheers for reading my post...but your one liner responses haven't really contributed any value to this thread.

Hold the phone Mr Dokey , , , , what do you mean we haven't contributed any value ????

Smokey added some funny , , , , never underestimate the value of funny

And , , , , well , , , , me , , , , I think I added some funny tooooo



You are probably meaning we (and everyone else) haven't contributed any value to "your" opinion.


Cheers, Mr Bug

[Bugatti]

You can't compare this

to this

OR, this

to this

Cheers, Bugs , , , ,

not bugs

[OkeyDokey]

Oh Jeez, fair do's...I surrender to the humour.

Nothing wrong with offering ideas though guys, seeing as this is a massive issue. I still defend that managed, recreational fisheries need to be a partnership measure in the long term to spread the load on continuous control and if you read my post thoroughly, you'll see I'm in favour of culling.

This could've been a lot easier but most of the comments seemed to be based on 'oh he's just another Carp lover ' - which is inaccurate (I'm an all-rounder game-sea-course), so yeah, I shot down those opinions.

Significantly reducing the Carp population is only part of the overall solution for natives, so we need to push for follow-up initiatives. I thought we might be able to tap some creative thinking.

[ronan]

ok carp lover

[re-tyred]

Just teach people to eat them and allow some commercial fishing with methods that don't harm other species.
"Carp are good to eat. But, you may have to prepare it properly if you don't like fishy flavor. Carp are a staple part of diets all across the world. Overall, It's a great food fish and can be prepared in many different ways."
A simple commercial operation would allow a licenced person to take them using hooks and line. Those caught by anglers in excess to personal use could be legally given to a commercial operator. No limits on catch.
There are thousands of tonnes of fish taken out of the ocean every year in Australia for conversion to stock feed and fish farm pellets. It would not take a lot of organisation for excess carp to be converted to fish feed pellets

[mazman]

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.

[Bugatti]

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.

Nice fish Alex

The smile says it all. And yes, it's about balance.

Cheers, Bugs