In the previous article on the invasion of the United States by black tiger shrimp, we also mentioned a very powerful invader: the Asian carp. Similar to black tiger shrimp, when we think of carp, the first thing that comes to mind is "eating".
A casual search for "carp eating method" on the Internet will have countless mouth-watering food pictures that come into our eyes: braised carp, spicy fish pieces, steamed carp, carp soup, fried carp, sweet and sour carp, sauerkraut fish, boiled fish, etc. The number of methods will definitely make foreigners who do not understand Chinese food culture stunned.
Carp are a headache in the United States, because they have become a disaster in the Great Lakes.
The United States offers a heavy bounty just to "kill" the Asian carp
How much the Americans have a headache for them, just look at this bounty notice: According to Fox News, The Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, called on the public to "resist the carp invasion."
To this end, we will not hesitate to start a project, use various ideas from all over the world, solve the troublesome problem of Asian carp invasion, and offer a heavy reward to provide the best solution to the Asian carp invasion, and will receive up to 700,000 US dollars, that is, about 5 million yuan.
See here netizens have said, five million is not a small number, we usually say that winning the lottery, love to say "five million lottery", kill a group of carp, can earn five million, this money is too easy to earn, right?
I think this because carp is nothing more than a table dish in our Chinese culture, and if we have to go further, we even think of them as a symbol of auspiciousness.
I believe that everyone has heard a saying called "carp jumping dragon gate", which is an ancient folklore, it is said that the carp in the Yellow River jumped over the dragon gate, it will become a dragon, this idiom, and then used to describe the examination in the lift, the career of the successful promotion, the soaring yellow Tengda people, people are more from the carp against the current, see the spirit of hard work, hard work.
We will also take the harmonic sound of the fish "Yu" in the New Year, in order to get rich in the next year, and everything will be a little more.
After reading this, we probably know that our Chinese and the Attitude of Americans to carp are completely different, in fact, in the United States, the size of carp may grow to the point of being very frightening, because no one can "cure" them, they grow wantonly, fat like pigs, no wonder in the eyes of the Americans, Asian carp make them so big.
How big can asian carp grow?
When it comes to Asian carp, we usually think of it as a fish, but in fact, the title of Asian carp is a general term for many types of fish.
The Asian carp is a general term for the fish of the cyprinid order and the cyprinid family, which include silver carp, grass carp, bighead carp, silver carp, crucian carp, bluefish and so on. Seeing these species, we can't help but think, aren't many species of Asian carp a regular customer on our table?
It is true, and because of this, our carp cannot grow to be fifty or sixty pounds, because before they grow up, they are already on the table.
If you put aside the factor of predation, how old can a carp grow?
Let's take a look at how old the longest-lived Asian carp, that is, carp, can grow. According to statistics, the natural life expectancy of carp can reach about seventy years old, and the original life span of fish can reach a similar point as that of humans.
Carp are omnivorous animals, that is to say, they are basically not picky eaters, anything can be eaten, like aquatic plants, insects, small fish and shrimp, can make them a good meal, and they eat not enough, can always eat non-stop, will not feel full, and because of this, their growth rate, is very rapid.
Carp grow very quickly before sexual maturity, especially male carp, the speed is even more amazing, and the time to reach sexual maturity is only two years. After two years, the growth rate of female carp also began to accelerate, and this growth mechanism was conducive to better reproduction. Putting aside environmental factors, human factors aside, if in an environment conducive to the growth of carp, the length of the carp can grow to one meter or even one and a half meters, and the weight may even reach about one hundred pounds.
On the other hand, the carp we buy in the market, the people who buy vegetables and cook for the family should not be too unfamiliar with this, how can there be a hundred pounds, the largest is only seven or eight pounds, and the small one is about one or two pounds. For the seven or eight pounds of "big carp" we bought home, the family around the table can eat a full meal, we may think: this must be the "grandfather" of the carp.
In fact, seven or eight pounds of carp, in nature, is just a few months old "carp baby", just because we are too often in the wild environment to grow carp for a long time, so we have no idea how much potential they have and how big they can grow.
What is the concept of a carp of more than a hundred pounds? You should know that some slim girls, that is, eight or ninety pounds, a carp can be heavier than a big living person, full of golden fish scales, and grow "fat head and big ears", "big waist round", like a "monster" emerging from the water.
More than a hundred pounds of carp is not the largest, the current largest carp record, is from the United Kingdom fishing enthusiasts in Thailand caught, it is reported that this carp probably reached a weight of 201.3 pounds, the fish to pull ashore this thing is not easy at all, enough to waste six people half an hour of time, barely complete this task.
Why can't Chinese carp grow so big?
We all know that whether a species can grow or not, it does not matter if it is said by oneself, mainly by natural enemies. To say who is the biggest natural enemy of carp, in Our country, the biggest natural enemy of carp is people who love to eat fish.
In the previous article, we have long mentioned that China's broad and profound food culture is extremely inclusive of carp, and you can change the pattern in minutes to make a variety of different flavors of carp, which are suitable for men and women of all ages, and everyone loves to eat.
And we all say that eating fish is nutritious, but also to make children more intelligent, just under the inducement of this food culture, carp has become more and more "sought-after", fishermen have seen the market demand, began to fish wildly carp, decades ago, in the Yellow River can also see more than a meter long carp, to now, in nature, even a foot long carp is difficult to find, the reason for this, in the final analysis, is to "blame" us foodies.
In Europe and the United States flooding, let people because of how to "eliminate" their problem headache carp, to our country, actually became "fragrant food", nature is not enough for us to eat, but also rely on artificial breeding to make up the number, in order to barely meet the needs of China's foodies, how big is the demand?
Through this data, we can know one or two: according to the data in the "China Fishery Statistics Yearbook" in 2018, the freshwater aquaculture of the four major fish in China has reached 13.151 million tons. The four major fish here, namely bluefish, grass carp, silver carp, and bighead carp, all belong to the category of Asian carp in terms of classification. The love of our people for eating "Asian carp" is evident from this data.
In addition to the "natural enemy" of human beings, China's water ecological environment is also different from Europe and the United States, in China's waters, there are natural enemies of carp itself, to inhibit the uncontrolled growth of their number, you know, carp is the original ecology of our country in the fish, after so many years of natural environment regulation, has long developed a food chain, big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp rice, it is impossible to make carp dominant, "dominate" a piece of water.
From the moment carp spawns and reproduces, they are threatened by natural predators, and some fish, such as mandarin fish and blackfish, are eager to try them, and it is basically impossible to live a carefree and good life.
Of course, in addition to the influence of natural predators in nature, China's water environment has also undergone very big changes in recent years, these changes are also unfavorable for carp, because there are not so many algae in Our waters, which leads to a lack of food for carp, it is difficult to grow rapidly to such a large size, of course, in this environment, for them to breed offspring, it will also cause a certain impact.
Why is it that in the United States, carp can be fat like "pigs"?
Look at our domestic "skinny bones", the number of poor wild carp has gradually become smaller, and then look at the carp in the waters of the United States, one after another "fat into pigs", let people see the head is big, China can't help but drool, such a good ingredient, no one eats? What a shame!
Americans have never been so interested in freshwater fish, starting with their geographical advantage. The United States is bordered by the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the west, rich in fishery resources, marine fish seems to be a better ingredient for them, and the favorite fish of americans is tuna, salmon, cod and other marine fish species.
These fish, very nutritious, and the growth environment is very good, eat them without worrying about pollution problems, less thorns, fat meat, for Americans who are very lazy on weekdays, compared to these fish, carp for them, can be said to be a very troublesome ingredient to deal with, because in the flooding of water, this fish is less and less valuable, it is more and more "lazy" to eat them.
In fact, Americans have also tried to make carp into fish steaks, or into products such as canned cats, in an attempt to "eliminate" some carp, but the "combat effectiveness" is basically not worth mentioning, and it has not been able to solve the problem of carp flooding.
Compared with the domestic waters, the waters of the United States, the lack of carp predators, and in the seventies of the last century, the seaweed in the United States lakes flooded, originally wanted to let the carp to "manage" the seaweed problem, did not expect the carp to get the opportunity, directly "noisy", became the "overlord" in the Waters of the United States, in the United States to live a moist little life, their own fat flow of oil, can make the Americans sad.
epilogue
After reading so much, now we know why carp have such a short lifespan in China, early in the "childhood", it has become a delicacy on our table, while in the United States, it can raise a big waist, one by one like a pig, growing a body, carefree life.
Netizens even said that perhaps the final result makes the United States the first largest species invasion problem, but also rely on our Chinese chefs to show two tricks, but also learned that at that time, Americans who do not like to eat freshwater fish will be shocked by such food, and then, maybe the good days of the "Asian carp overlords" who are "at ease" in the US waters will really come to an end.
When we saw that the heavy gold reward solved the problem of species invasion, our netizens also said: Do not use the heavy gold reward, buy a ticket for the foodie, and "kill a piece of armor without leaving" in minutes. Perhaps in the eyes of foodies, species invasion is not a problem at all.