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The Asian carp, a fish authorities fear will be the next major invading species—like the zebra mussel, the sea lamprey or snakehead fish—is available for sale, alive, in Ottawa fish markets.
The fish, which isn’t native to North America, has already become a problem in the U.S. Mississippi River after escaping breeding pools during a flood in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been heading north and has been sighted 40 kilometres from the mouth of Lake Michigan.
Worried that the fish will outperform native species because of its ability to breed and grow quickly and because of its appetite for zooplankton, U.S. authorities have set up an electrical barrier in the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes.
Once there, it could threaten not only the Great Lakes’ $4 billion (U.S.) sport and commercial fishery, but their ecology.
But all of the work being done to keep out the carp could be for naught if hungry humans end up helping them get into the rivers. Gourmands who enjoy the fish want it fresh. And for that reason a number of Ottawa markets keep them live in tanks.
Ben Quach, manager of 168 Market on Somerset Street West, said he sells 200 to 300 kilograms of big head, a variety of the Asian carp, every week. He said it’s his top seller.
“People from China really, really like them,” he said standing in front of a full tank of the fish. Ottawa ecologist Dan Brunton, president of Ottawa Riverkeeper, called the live sale of the fish a disaster waiting to happen.
“That’s really worrisome,” he said. “They absolutely should be banned. I don’t think there’s much question about that at all.”
When thousands of the live fish are shipped into the country it is inevitable, he said, that some will eventually find their way into rivers. His call for a ban has a precedent. Last week, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley put forward a proposal for a ban on the live sale of the Asian carp.
“We need legislation to prevent the introduction of invasive species into the Great Lakes,” Mr. Daley said in a statement. “These fish have the potential to dramatically affect the ecosystem of Lake Michigan and all the surrounding waterways.”
Under the proposed Chicago ban, fish markets would still be able to hold the fish live in tanks, provided they obtained a permit, but they would have to ensure that no customer leaves the store with such a fish still alive.
Mr. Quach said he can’t see what the fuss is about. He said his customers invariably want the fish killed and cleaned on the spot and he can’t remember a single case where a customer has left the store with a live fish.
The same story comes from the Kowloon Market, down the block on Somerset, which also keeps the fish live and sells about 225 kilograms per week.
Yet earlier this year, officials in the International Joint Commission, the agency protecting the Great Lakes and now headed by former deputy prime minister Herb Gray, were able to purchase a big head from the 168 Market and leave with it alive.
Mr. Gray said he thinks municipal and provincial legislators should look carefully at the idea of a ban. “This is something I’d like to see looked into early,” he said yesterday.
Dennis Shornack, Mr. Gray’s U.S. counterpart, warned last year the fish eat vast amounts of food. “They are highly prolific and can quickly grow to a size at which they have no natural predator,” he said. “Commercial fisheries in some parts of the Lower Mississippi have been completely destroyed by the invasion of the Asian carp.”
He said the fish could turn the Great Lakes into a “carp pond.” Mr. Brunton said he is not as worried about the fish once they are in the stores as he is about the trucks that bring them to town over land.
“You don’t plan these things for what’s likely to happen,” he said. “You have to plan them for what’s unlikely to happen. What’s unlikely to happen is an accidental release.”
For that reason, he said the Chicago ban doesn’t go far enough, since the trucks are still carrying the live fish. He said the fish shouldn’t be allowed across the border alive.
Noel Alfonso, an ichthyologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature, said Mr. Brunton is right to be worried about the fish and a ban is worth considering.
“Given the extent to which we’ve disrupted the ecology of the Great Lakes and the surrounding watersheds, maybe it’s not unreasonable,” he said.