In the U.S., carp are known primarily as muddy-tasting bottom feeders.
“Private-sector, market-driven demand for copi could be our best hope.” “Government subsidies alone will not end this war,” Goss said. Even more are available from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. Officials estimate up to 50 million pounds (22.7 million kilograms) could be netted annually in the Illinois River between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. It would help if more people ate the critters, which are popular in other countries. Other technologies - underwater noisemakers, air bubble curtains - are in the works. Strategies include placing electric barriers at choke points and hiring crews to harvest the fish for products such as fertilizer and pet food. Regulators have spent more than $600 million to keep them from the Great Lakes and waters such as Lake Barkley on the Kentucky-Tennessee line. They’ve infested most of the river and many tributaries, crowding out native species like bass and crappie. Imported from Asia in the 1960s-70s to gobble algae from Deep South sewage lagoons and fish farms, they escaped into the Mississippi. Span, a Chicago communications design company, came up with “copi.” It’s an abbreviated wordplay on “copious” - a reference to the booming populations of bighead, silver, grass and black carp in the U.S. “The next couple of years are very critical for building confidence and acceptance.” “This could be a tremendous breakthrough,” said John Goss, who led the Obama administration’s effort to halt the carp invasion and worked on the renaming project. Most are in Illinois, but some deliver to multiple states or nationwide. More than two dozen distributors, processors, restaurants and retailers have signed on.
The federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is funding the five-year, $600,000 project to rebrand the carp and make them widely available. “But it’s healthy, clean and it really tastes pretty darn good.” “The ‘carp’ name is so harsh that people won’t even try it,” said Kevin Irons, assistant fisheries chief with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Turning carp into a popular household and restaurant menu item is one way officials hope to rein in a decades-old invasion threatening native fish, mussels and aquatic plants in the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers, as well as the Great Lakes. Illinois and partner organizations kicked off a market-tested campaign Wednesday to rechristen as “copi” four species previously known collectively as Asian carp, hoping the new label will make them more attractive to U.S. Here’s the catch: They’re the same thing. But how about broiled copi, fresh from the Mississippi River? (AP) - You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp.
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