Yum! Silver Asian Carp Cakes

When it comes to appetizers, you demand perfection.

So when you’re faced with a decision on what to prepared for your discerning guests, whether it’s a caviar flown in from Bulgaria or Foie Gras—or, most crucially, the wine for a certain significant other—you study your choices carefully, do some preliminary taste tests and then you flip through your recipe cards and you land on Asian Silver Carp Cakes!

Easy to make, delicious, and not to mention another great way to remove another Silver Carp from American waters.

What’s on your menu tonight?

Scientists race to win war on Asian carp: Pheromones, noise guns, and biobullets.

"Bighead Carp find Carp Cologne irresistible when
when spritzed on US Fish & Wildlife officers."

It’s taken a lot of research, but scientists are now working on Asian Carp Cologne laced with Pheromones (you know, just like the one that over stimulated teenage boys across America were dousing themselves with at the mall) is nearly available for carp consumption. Asian Carp will want to dab some on their fins before any impromptu leap performances, but remember: anglers should think twice about spraying this one on.

Makes us wonder if the Defense Department is taking notes?

Detroit Free Press- Tina Lam - July 22, 2011 - Across the country, scientists in laboratories are dreaming up novel ways to kill and repel Asian carp.

Super-oxygenate the water they live in so they die. Create nanoparticles filled with poison to specifically target Asian carp. Invent curtains of effervescent bubbles and annoying sounds to drive them away. Manipulate their genes so their offspring are sterile.

These and other scientific controls are on the drawing board and, in some cases, close to reality.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Late at night this spring, Reuben Goforth was working in his garage, building a contraption to zap fish eggs with electricity.

"It'd be like sticking your finger in a light socket," he said.

If his invention works, he said, he hopes to be able to disrupt the development of Asian carp eggs and larvae in spawning areas by using jolts of electricity fired from a backpack ray gun. It would be like an electrical barrier, but portable.

Goforth, a professor at Purdue University, is one of about 60 scientists in government and university laboratories across the country working hard to find ways to control bighead and silver carp. They are investigating poisons, water guns, genetic modifications and sexual attractants -- called pheromones -- that could kill, stun or even herd the fish to places where they would be easier to kill.

"Yeah, the next thing you know, they'll try shipping
us to the moon. What the heck?"

It may not equal the race to put a man on the moon, but "it's a significant effort," said Leon Carl, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center, which is coordinating the scientific work on Asian carp.

The scientists said they believe they will prevail against the fish. Click To Read More

Yikes! Invasive snakehead found in river near Annapolis

You’ve caught fish in some pretty amazing places.

Chesapeake Bay, Potomic River, Leech Lake—Keeping all the “fish stories” straight can be downright confusing. You know, keeping track of all those good times.

And, if Snakehead has his way, you won’t have to suffer under this terrible burden any longer.

"It's bad enough that I have to deal
with anglers, but now I have to
contend with SnakeHeads? #*@%!!!"

Scientists hanging out in the Rhode River, just south of Annapolis, recently discovered a horrifying, teeth-filled, and downright ugly Northern Snakehead. Did we mention it was egg-bearing female? Oh Carp!

The Baltimore Sun - Candus Thomson - July 18, 2011  - The 23-inch snakehead was found in the Rhode River last Thursday by biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center taking annual fish samples by net.

"The water was very murky with a lot of sediment. When a fish is that large, you assume it's a carp," said Stacey Havard, a Smithsonian biologist. "An intern saw the pattern and almost instantly identified it."

The center tested the fish and reported the catch to the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Northern Snakehead

The toothy alien, a native of Asia, is an aggressive, rapidly breeding predator that can overwhelm habitat and push out local fish.

Scientists have long believed that the salinity of the bay would keep snakeheads bottled up in the Potomac River. But last year, watermen found them in St. Jerome Creek, past Point Lookout on the bay side. Click To Read More

Tweed River Music Festival

You’ve been patient, but this is your year. You’re finally mentally committed to the massive summer of swimming, boating and a music soiree at the Tweed River Music Festival. The pesky part: the arrangements. But no worries, we’ve listed Vermont’s top aquatic invasive species and a link to get you hooked up with festival tickets.

Tweed Music Festival – Stockbridge, VT

August 12, 13, 14

More Festival Info Click Here

Sampling of the Performing Bands

Booker T. Jones  

Beg Scream & Shout                   

Mellow Bravo

Ever Expanding Elastic Waistband   

Bow Thayer and Perfect TrainWreck                       

"It's going to be awesome! Camping
with good food, music and lots of
stars. We better get buzy and
pitch our tent before everyone
shows up!"

Did we mention promoters have limited the number of folks that can attend (this is not one of those over-crowded music concerts), and they located it on one of the sweetest swimming holes? Get your tickets in advance.

And, if you go… make sure you’re wearing Bob Lake!

Click Here to read about aquatic invasive species plaguing Vermont.  

Weed Wars... Roberta Hill on the frontlines

Long Lake on the Songo River is known for a few things.

The Inn at Long Lake. Canoeing and sipping wine. And an occasional celebrity hanging out in a swimsuit-clad that matches the Chris Craft Boat they rented for the week.

And, did we mention, Roberta Hill? No…not Roberta Flack.

Introducing Roberta Hill, an aquatic ecologist and environmental educator on the front lines of protecting your future beach parties, and frankly speaking, your recreational fun.

Roberta Hill author of the
Maine Field Guide to
Invasive Aquatic Plants.

Invasive aquatic plants are choking the native life out of the Maine’s fresh waters and Roberta Hill is training citizen sleuths to identify and deal with most wanted water offenders.

Boston.com – Scot Lehigh, July 8, 2011 - “You see the leaded glass window, the serrated edge, and the lasagna noodle, and you’ve got it,’’ she declares.

Got what, you ask? A curly leaf pondweed; those are looks-like clues for spotting its leaves.

That weed is just one of nearly a dozen invasive aquatic plants that Maine and other Northeastern states are fighting to keep out of their lakes, ponds, and rivers.

“They are such serious invaders that once they become firmly established in a water body, they are almost impossible to eradicate,’’ says Hill, invasive plant coordinator for the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program. Others on the list of vegetative villains are European frog-bit, water chestnut, yellow floating heart, fanwort, Brazilian waterweed, hydrilla, European naiad, and several varieties of milfoil.

As non-native species, the invaders don’t face the parasites and predators that keep native flora in check, and so, when they infect a lake, they usually grow rapidly, crowding out other plant life and destroying fish habitat. Their thick growth can make it difficult to boat and hazardous to swim.  To Read More…

You’ve gotta be kidding me! Un-Reversing the Chicago River

Holy Carp!

Scientists and Engineers are taking on a task worthy of Moses.  The environmental community is urging a permanent solution to stopping Asian carp’s lakeward migration toward the Great Lakes, and environmentalists and a growing chorus of lawmakers are pushing to physically separate the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes.

No, this is not a Summer Hollywood Epic Film.

WBEZ91.5 – Gabriel Spitzer - July 13, 2011- Back in the 19th century, Chicago had a problem: Its river went the wrong way, washing sewage into its drinking water supply in Lake Michigan, spreading diseases like cholera and dysentery. The solution sounded crazy: turn the river around. But that’s just what Chicago did, and it’s been patting itself on the back for it ever since.

"Hey Charlie, if they seperate the two water basins,
we're going to have to hire a charter boat to get to
the Great Lakes. How much cash do you have?"

Now the menace isn’t waterborne disease, but invasive species. Unwelcome critters, plants and microbes are the price of connecting two great waterways that had always been separate, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.

The new threat has civic leaders considering a fix that seems almost as audacious as reversing the river: un-reversing the river. To Read More

Hero on the Frontlines, David Ullrich, a career EPA official.
Keep up the good work!

The Summer of Spreading to 10,000 Lakes and Beyond!

Coming to a Lake near you!

So. Here we are. Almost halfway through summer.   

And while you’ve already accomplished a lot—the new dock is built, paddle boards procured, and fire pit broken in—you still haven’t done everything you wanted.

For instance, you haven’t walked along the shores of the lake.

Oh yah! You can’t for they’re covered in discarded Zebra Mussels!

Wake Up!

Ms Zebra Mussel is spreading rapidly through out Minnesota’s most prized jewels –Lake Minnetonka. And, with the State Government shutdown, she could spread into any number of our 10,000 lakes.

Lake Minnnetonka - 2011 Zebra Mussel - June Results

StarTribune, Minneapolis - Paul Walsh- July 7, 2011-"It's no surprise the zebra mussel infestation is spreading west across the lake," said Kelly Dooley, the district's water quality technician. "This invasive species is known for its rapid growth, and we're committed to doing everything we can to prevent its spread to other waters, but we need the public's help. We all need to do our part to save the summers we love at local lakes and streams by stopping the spread of zebra mussels."

Left to their own devices, zebra mussels will continue to spread, littering beaches with their sharp shells. They will damage boats and equipment and destroy the health of local lakes, rivers and streams.  TO READ MORE

Oh Carp! Now the Sturgeons are getting into “Carpe Diem!”

Let’s cut to the core, the Suwannee River has all the trappings you need to make your scene and never leave— hot bass pools, a clothing-optional inlet, slatted cabanas on the banks, cicadas serenading, sparsely attired bright young things, a cooler filled with mojitos.

Your headquarters for this 4^th of July trip will be either a boating-up this lazy river (pack at least three inner tubes) or a trip to the ER.

Oh Carp! The sturgeons are taking up the sport of “Flying!”

We know, turn down the Michael Bolton playing for a moment and listen…

Just imagine a gulf sturgeon growing up to 8 feet long and weighing up to 200 pounds, leaping out of the water to smack you. It’s a nightmare.

"Carpe Diem" - Sturgeon seizing the day!

"They're really bony, hard fish," explains Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Officer Dorvan Daniel "It's like an alligator on the outside of their skin. They're really almost as hard as a rock."

As the Fourth of July approaches, public services announcements warn of firework and campfire dangers, but near the Suwannee River in Northwest Florida the message to the public is: Beware of flying fish.

"We don't want to scare anyone off the river," says Karen Parker, FWC spokesperson, "but we do want to make people aware that these fish they do jump and people have gotten injured by them." Click here to read more.