Bighead carp : invasive species

Abstract

"The Bighead Carp is native to China and was imported to the United States in 1973, primarily as a biological water quality control mechanism in fish hatcheries to clean up excess plankton in the water. The fish were also stocked in various other locations, such as sewage treatment facilities, for the same reasons. The fish escaped these impoundments during flood events, and were introduced into thefree-flowing rivers, where they flourished and spread. These fish have been able to spread quickly and vastly because they eat a lot of plankton, competing directly with native planktivores, such as Paddlefish and Gizzard Shad. Since plankton form the base of any aquatic food chain, they can also affect an entire ecosystem, therefore food can run out or be reduced for all animals and the whole ecosystem suffers as a result. Bighead Carp predation on plankton alters the plankton community to smaller plankton that are less useful to native species and they sometimes promote the proliferation of toxic algal blooms that are noxious to native fish as well as humans."--Page 2.