Want Another Carp?

Rasmussen’s exact words in River Crossings were as follows: “All of the Asian carps will thus likely be thought of by our grandchildren as ‘natives’; and even worse, our grandchildren may never see or know that species such as the paddlefish, buffalo, and others ever existed—all because of selfish, self-serving decisions made for the benefit of a few people in the late 1900s!” If that statement is inflammatory, it’s because it’s the exact truth. Moreover, I’d say it’s about time federal resource managers started talking that way. If more of them did, they’d get more respect and our fish and wildlife wouldn’t be going down the tubes so fast.

“Jerry did the right thing,” comments MICRA chairman Bill Reeves, chief of fisheries, for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “He stood up for the resource, and he got punished for it. I didn’t know that people in federal service got treated like that. All us fish chiefs have talked to each other about it, and we agree that Jerry did what any good employee for the Fish and Wildlife Service would do. He’s a go-getter. He’s always been a credit to the service. He’s dedicated; he’s passionate about big rivers and riverine resources. And that passion and desire to do good is what got him in trouble. When this black carp issue came up in Mississippi, allowing fish farmers to utilize diploid black carp, MICRA took it up as an issue. I told everyone that, since I’m the chair and not from a catfish-producing state, I could be used to take the heat. And that worked well until that delegation from Arkansas went to visit Senator Lincoln.”

Marion Conover agrees. “I think I can speak for hundreds of professionals that Jerry was a casualty of fish politics,” he says. “It wasn’t handled correctly at all, and certainly he had done nothing wrong. It’s sad when one contact with a senator can do that. But it wasn’t just Jerry. As far as I’m concerned the 28 state partners got dumped on big-time by the Fish and Wildlife Service. There was no consulting with MICRA, no follow up, no questions. The decision was made with no input from states.”

I find it astonishing that, after trashing our aquatic ecosystems with hundreds of alien species, including three Asian carps and a European carp, we are now arguing about introducing another carp. Over the past century we’ve unleashed at least 135 alien species on the Mississippi system alone. Measured just by dollars, this has been a national disaster. But we’ve learned nothing. We still talk about miracle fish from abroad that are going to eat all the bad stuff and leave all the good stuff. We wander down expressways like sleepwalkers; and when smart, tough resource professionals such as Jerry Rasmussen yell at us to wake up we still round them up and ship them to Siberia.

As Marion Conover observes, we’ve got to forget about proving a species is “injurious” and banning it and, instead, ban everything that we haven’t proved harmless. The regulatory framework for preventing infestations of alien species is hopelessly inadequate. We need new federal legislation. And, more than that, we need the courage and decency to stand behind the good people who try to show us the way.