Just in early August, the "Asian Carp Eradication Competition" held in the United States had just come to an end, and the $200,000 prize money was taken away by players in the United States. The aim of the competition is to solicit from around the world ways to effectively stop Asian carp from continuing to expand within the United States. The idea for winning the championship this time was to make a wall of steam drums with underwater propellers to limit the Asian carp to a specific range.
Image source network
For the United States, Asian carp has been quite a headache, and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to govern, but there is still not much improvement, the organization of such a competition, for the government is also better than nothing, in case there is a good way, is not to save the money to be spent later.
For invasive alien species, it is very understandable to be encircled, but it is surprising that there is a native cyprinid fish in the United States that is also surrounded and suppressed by the federal government.
Before we get to this fish, we have to talk about a river, the Columbia River in the United States. This Columbia River has no half-cent relationship with the South American country of Colombia, whether in terms of status or other level, it is a large-flowing river located in the northwest corner of the United States (second only to the Mississippi River in terms of flow).
The red arrow refers to the approximate location of the Columbia River Basin
Because of the large flow, there are very rich water conservancy resources, and the state has also established several dams of various sizes. In addition to water resources, the Columbia River estuary has a high latitude, and the wild salmon resources near the mouth of the sea are quite abundant, and there are several species, the well-known ones are king salmon and whitefish.
As migratory fish, salmon migrate upstream to rivers to breed and spawn, and dams are the biggest obstacle to their migration. However, the salmon there are much luckier than the white sturgeon in our country. These salmon swim very well, and can be climbed on a fish ladder. Fork open to talk about the fish ladder, you can say very desperately, the fish ladder this play, really only the seawater salmon to play around, large sturgeon and freshwater four big fish are not blessed at all.
Bonneville Dam Fish Ladder Source: Big Head Doll Rain No Worries Sina Blog
Therefore, on the only way for salmon, the dams are equipped with fish ladders. Here we will talk about one of the more famous dams, the Bonneville Dam. This dam is vital for salmon, and when it passes, it means that the revolution has triumphed. Under the fish ladder of the Bonneville Dam, there are often many salmon that there are often "messes"
Bonneville Dam Source: Naughty
The main people who use the fish ladder are the local sea lions, because they find that waiting under the fish ladder, the salmon themselves will come to the door, so many sea lions will secretly swim to the bottom of the dam's fish ladder to wait for the rabbits. Salmon can be eaten, but other animals can't, and sea lions also like the most expensive king salmon, and the U.S. government naturally can't stand it. What began as intimidation and no use for the killers, more than 70 sea lions have been executed since 2007.
In addition to sea lions, there is also a large number of seabirds, especially the double-crowned cormorant, which kills salmon the most and is also included in the list of "lethal control" (culling of other animals to protect one animal) by the local U.S. engineering corps.
Pulling so much, today's protagonist is finally going to debut, it is the Oregon leaf lip fish, but also such as the fake replacement of the carp, and is a ferocious predator, feels a bit like the flat snout fish in the northwest of our country, it is estimated that everyone is not familiar, the pictures on the Internet are not much, everyone will take it as "American cocking mouth" well.
Oregon leaf lip fish Image source: Naughty
The original influence of this leaf-lipped fish on salmon is not very large, although some of the juvenile fish of salmon will be preyed upon by leaf-lip fish after hatching, but it is still in the normal range. But the problem was with the Bonneville Dam. Because after the dam was built, a large reservoir was formed upstream, and the new stable living environment significantly increased the population of leaf-lipped fish.
Moreover, the upstream of the dam is the breeding ground of salmon, where the fry hatch and grow, and the presence of leaf lip fish has brought a huge blow to the salmon seedlings. With soaring numbers of native carps and wild salmon of very high economic value, the U.S. government knows exactly what to do.
Salmon fry
Since 2000, the U.S. federal government department, the Bonneville Dam Authority, has teamed up with two local state governments to annually reward local oregon leaf lipfish, paying more than $1 million in bonuses.
The highest single prize in 2017 was $84,000, while the highest prize in 2016 was close to $120,000, and the bounty fisherman spent only 5 months. And this bounty campaign will continue in 2020.
Every year from May 1 to September 30, this five-month period, anyone with a fishing license can participate in the relevant registration work. Catches must be larger than 9 inches (22.8cm) in size, $5 for less than 25, $6 for 26-200, and $8 for more than 200.
Image source: Naughty
The government will throw about 1,000 "bonus" fish into the river every year, and if they catch it, they can be settled for $500 a year. For many fishing enthusiasts who are idle at home because of the epidemic, this is simply a tailor-made way to make money for them.
As native leaf-lipped fish, the U.S. government naturally cannot exterminate them all, and the most wanted target is to reduce the existing population of leaf-lipped fish by 10%-20%. According to local fishery experts in the United States, this leaf lip fish is not difficult to catch, but it is difficult to find fish. The vast Columbia River, you have to fish more, accumulate experience, know where to find fish, in order to get something.
For the creatures of nature, we humans are the ultimate players in the role of God, and we can determine their fate according to the economic value of the species, which is very realistic, but from an ecological point of view, it is also very willful.
Reference: Idle, Legon leaf lip fish - a carp species wanted by the US federal bounty, some people earned more than $80,000 in 5 months