Boaters are wearing helmets for protection against 'flying fish'

Asian carp are invading the Mississippi River and
boaters' personal space. (Photo by Megs Harrison, Unsplash)

Asian carp, or "flying fish," are injuring boaters throughout the Midwest and eating up the food supply of native fish in the Mississippi River, reports Jeanne Whalen of The Wall Street Journal.

Able to jump as high as 10 feet out of the water, these carp are easily spooked by motors and have given boaters black eyes
and broken noses, Whalen reports.

Asian carp came to the U.S. from China and Russia in the ‘70s to regulate algae blooms in ponds and wastewater treatment plants, Whalen explains. Due to flooding, they escaped confinement, spread into the Mississippi River Basin, and exponentially reproduced into dozens of rivers.

If they breach the Great Lakes, they threaten the region’s walleye, bass and trout, which provide the fishing industry $5 billion annually, Whalen adds.

The governors of Michigan and Illinois are urging the federal government to unfreeze the funding for a river barrier to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan, reports Whalen. An additional deterrent could be blaring speakers underwater to distract the carp.

While the public waits for federal help to detain the carp, they have been creating their own solutions such as wearing helmets while boating, competing in contests to catch the jumping fish, or creating new recipes to eat them, explains Whalen.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has officially rebranded the fish as Copi, short for copious, in hopes consumers find them more appealing. “Fisherman and chefs report that Asian carp are actually delicious, though they are so bony they don’t make good filets. Chefs often grind them up and turn them into fish cakes,” Whalen adds.