We’ve been gearing up to approach the legislature to fund the carp removal efforts that have been going on over the past three years. To date, we’ve removed over 13.5 million pounds of fish. At an average of five pounds per fish, that’s around 2.5 million fish! We need to remove 18 million more pounds over the next three years.
The fish are then removed, the carp separated from the more desirable fish (like walleye and catfish) which are returned to the lake. Oh-I should mention, the size of the channel catfish and walleye was impressive! There were dozens of each measuring more than 18 inches and weighing more than 8 pounds!
Yesterday, we invited Utah County legislators and the media to observe the labor-intensive process first-hand. They got quite a show! We estimated that the day’s haul was around 30,000 pounds…an average day. Check out the coverage that we received. KUTV 2 had a tight deadline, needing to be on-air at noon, so they missed much of the action. KSL 5 and Fox 13 were also there. We also had a great time chatting with the reporters and photographers from the Daily Herald and the Deseret News.
We’re crossing our fingers that the funding goes through. If it doesn’t, we’ll lose much of the work that we have already accomplished.
Feature Image Photo Credit: Mark Johnston, Daily Herald
Wow. Utah Lake has some great fish other than the carp of course. I wonder if any of those workers kept a Walleye or a Channel Cat for themselves. Maybe they kept a couple. That would have been great to see. This was a fascinating article to read. Pretty neat.
How about giving a bounty for each pound of carp to fishermen/women. The unemployed and retired could spend hours fishing to feed the family and reduce their hardship while they benefit the lake.