Officials Keeping Close Eye On Growing Population Of Asian Carp In Upper Reaches Of Little Sioux River

(Milford)– Officials are keeping a very close eye on a growing population of Asian carp in the upper reaches of the Little Sioux River. Mike Hawkins is a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources…Hawkins & Asian Carp01 

“High water levels in general through the Little Sioux watershed have allowed those fish to move upstream a little more easily and so they’ve been knocking on our door here and in some other places in the upper Little Sioux watershed. The other component there would be that the Linn Grove dam as a lot of folks know is no longer operable and there’s been some work to start some planning on what’s going to happen there at Linn Grove but that dam used to provide a little bit of a barrier but is no longer. Fish can go right around that dam right now.”

Hawkins says they’re trying to get a better handle on the extent of the growing population of the fish which are known to jump into boats when spooked…Hawkins & Asian Carp02 

“We’re looking at working with Iowa State University on a study to look at the distribution and movements of Asian Carp in the Little Sioux and also looking at the efficacy of the dam here where we’ve got the electric barrier. There’s been a lot of interest in electric barriers and this one in particular is used to keep those Asian Carp out of the natural lake system and so looking at that efficacy and how well that system really works is going to be important. No word on funding for that study but things are looking good and that will be some really interesting information.”

Hawkins adds the electric barrier installed in 2013 at the Lower Gar Outlet has been very effective at preventing Asian Carp, but he says the time has come for some preventive maintenance to be done on it…Hawkins & Asian Carp03 

“We need to have the manufacturer come back in and run some diagnostics, do some upgrades to the system. So we’re going to be looking at both ongoing costs for operation but also some short term costs to try to make sure that the system continues to run well. So I think we’ll be looking to some of the partners maybe in the watershed here to see if we can’t make that happen over the next year.”

Without that barrier, Hawkins says it’s evident Asian Carp would be causing a lot of problems in the Iowa Great Lakes…Hawkins & Asian Carp04 

“Just the numbers of fish we’re seeing up against the barrier and in Milford Creek and in the Little Sioux River, yeah the numbers in the Iowa Great Lakes, this is great habitat for them to grow. Even though they wouldn’t have reproduced their numbers would have increased over time and we would have seen them as a much more evident component of the fishery here. I’m not sure what impact that would have had but it probably would not have been positive.”

A similar barrier is in place below Round Lake and Illinois Lake in Minnesota to keep them out of those bodies of water as well.