Asian carp, as the name suggests, is a common name for the carp family native to Asia, which is the collective name of the Americans and Gaman in North America for the "four major fish (blue carp, grass carp, bighead carp/fathead fish, silver carp/silver carp/silver carp)" and carp, crucian carp, these carps occupy an extremely important position in China's food culture, especially the important economic fish "four big fish" in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In China, there are many ways to eat carp, such as braised blue fish segments, steamed Anhui fish, minced pepper fish head, dried pot silver carp, sweet and sour carp, crucian carp tofu soup, West Lake vinegar fish, boiled fish fillet, Anhui fish sashimi and other specialties or one fish more dishes are very popular, and even the main restaurant to eat fish.
In the impression of many people, the Asian carp is basically "alive" in China, but childhood, and it is almost difficult to find hundreds of pounds of individuals in major waters. Take the Yellow River carp as an example, because its flesh is more delicate and delicious and favored by people, but due to overfishing, coupled with the Yellow River water volume is small and has the phenomenon of interruption, the Yellow River carp is also at risk of extinction, and the large fish are very few.
However, in the waters of some european and American countries, especially in the large and small rivers of the Mississippi River basin in the United States, the Asian carp lives carefree. Because the habitat is so superior, so that crazy growth and reproduction, individual weight of 50-60 pounds is very common, these fat pig Asian carp make Europeans and Americans crazy. But what puzzles countless Chinese foodies is that such a large fish is very enjoyable whether it is cut or cut into sections, and it is not delicious to catch them in large quantities and make dishes?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="241" >Why is it difficult for Asian carp to "live" their childhood in China? </h1>
Among Asian carps, the Asian carp, known as the silver carp, has a lifespan of up to 70 years. Silver carp grows quickly after hatching, but there is a slight difference between male and female, usually the male silver carp before the 2nd age grows rapidly, which is conducive to promoting its sexual maturity, while the female silver carp after the 2nd instar grows rapidly, which is conducive to its ability to lay more eggs to maintain population reproduction.
Generally in the wild environment, the silver carp can grow about 2 pounds a year, and most of the carp stocked in the pond is within 3-10 pounds. The 10-15 years old in large reservoirs, rivers and lakes can grow to more than 1 meter long, and will grow slowly, according to biologists' speculations, it can grow to about 100 pounds. For example, Tim Webb, a 57-year-old British fisherman, once caught a large carp weighing 201.3 kilograms in a river in Thailand, and soon after a Fisherman in Thailand also caught 226 kilograms of large carp.
Fish is given the meaning and role of "more than one year" in traditional Chinese culture, even in the era of not being rich, when the New Year is celebrated, the Chinese people's dinner table is indispensable to "fish".
And in Asian carp, carp is rich in high-quality proteins that are easily absorbed by the human body, which can provide the human body with essential amino acids, minerals, vitamin A and vitamin D and other nutrients. Moreover, the fat contained in carp meat is mainly unsaturated fatty acids, which can minimize cholesterol and have certain value in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis, so eating more fish is conducive to longevity.
According to the latest data from the China Fishery Statistics Yearbook, The total fish catch in China in 2019 was 8.2127 million tons (of which 6.8288 million tons were caught in the ocean and 1.3839 million tons were caught in freshwater), which shows how obsessed Chinese are with fish-related cuisine.
Due to the large demand for many fish resources in the Chinese market, including Asian carp, both the scale of breeding and the scale of fishing are very large, in order to meet the needs of the market, fishermen usually use 3-5 finger nets to catch fish, can catch 2-30 pounds of fish. In other words, fish that are generally 2 years old may be caught ashore, and there are not many female carp that are not yet adults.
In addition to artificial fishing, Asian carp cannot flourish in China because it feeds mainly on plankton or wild mussels, affected by the amount of food and destroyed by carnivorous fish such as blackfish, and may become an endangered species without protection.
In recent years, due to the expansion of fish catches and the destruction of the ecological environment, whether it is rivers and lakes or offshore fishing, the catch of single nets has decreased sharply year by year, and the trend of fish miniaturization has become more and more obvious, resulting in accelerated depletion of fish resources. In order to rebuild a healthy and sustainable fish community and ecological system in the Yangtze River, China has implemented a ten-year ban on fishing on the Yangtze River.
In short, China is the main origin of Asian carp, stable ecological environment, coupled with fish meat is one of the important sources of human animal protein, the demand is very large, so multiple factors limit the growth of Asian carp population.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="241" > Asian carp grows and breeds wildly in Europe, america and other countries</h1>
Since the 1960s, phytoplankton in many parts of the United States has grown wantonly, which has seriously affected the quality of water bodies and the development of aquaculture. The United States is eager to find a safer way than chemical drugs to control the flooding of phytoplankton and evolve water bodies in some places.
When it is learned that Asian carp has a relatively large amount of food, it can eat aquatic weeds, plankton or wild mussels equivalent to 40% of its body weight every day. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service immediately thought of using "biological methods" to control plankton such as algae that grow freely in rivers, lakes and ponds, and using Asian carp as natural pond "cleaners". To this end, they formulated the "Professional Fish Introduction Program", which eventually introduced Asian carp from Asian countries such as China and Southeast Asia to the United States.
Asian carp was first introduced to arkansas in the United States, due to the strong adaptability of these fish, especially low temperature tolerance, hypoxia tolerance and other rapid breeding, soon achieved results, the problem of eutrophication in local waters was solved, many places have followed suit, through the introduction of Asian carp to control water eutrophication. But what followed was the "aggression" of Asian carp in many countries around the world, such as Europe and the United States.
Asian carp not only has strong environmental adaptability, but also has a particularly strong reproductive ability, can lay up to 150,000 eggs at a time, coupled with no natural enemies of checks and balances, so they can grow and reproduce wildly, and they soon become the local "fish king", directly occupying the living space of local fish species.
Not only that, asian carp soon spread to the Mississippi river and Illinois river basin, and then against the current to the Great Lakes region of North America, including Lake Michigan, and "camped", in some rivers the number of Asian carp has accounted for 90% of the total number of fish, a large number of Asian carp and native fish compete for food, resulting in a continuous decline in native fish, but also endanger the water source of about 30 million people in the United States and Canada in the basin.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="241" > why don't Europeans and Americans solve it by "eating"? </h1>
When it comes to eating habits, Americans actually prefer steak, they do not have the tradition of eating Asian carp, and they do not like the muscle spines on the fish, plus the scales of this fish are relatively large and difficult to manage, and they cannot be cooked to remove the earthy smell of Asian carp, far less simple than steak making or eating.
And in the middle of the last century, in order to save sewage charges, many enterprises in the United States will use a straight discharge method to discharge industrial wastewater containing arsenic, mercury, nitrate, benzene and other harmful substances directly into nature, resulting in serious pollution of many rivers and lakes, of which the Mississippi River, the largest river basin in the United States, is one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
Because most of the waters where Asian carp grow are polluted, the fish will be enriched with a large amount of heavy metals, and this fish is not up to the food conditions, so the local residents rarely prey on them.
Suitable growing environment, no longer many people prey on it, it has become a paradise for Asian carp breeding, not only the population is huge, fat pig Asian carp is also common in some rivers in the United States, some can grow to more than a meter long, dozens of kilograms.
In addition, the white lotus in the Asian carp, which is good at jumping and easy to be frightened, has evolved its ability to "fly" after reaching North American waters, and biologists call this white lotus "flying carp". Fishermen in the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers often complain that the Asian carp break their nets, while holiday casuals in motor boats say they are sometimes hurt by Asian carp that jump high above the water.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="241" > how can we control the flooding of Asian carp? </h1>
The invasion of Asian carp has brought great damage to the local native ecological environment and has become an important environmental protection problem in the United States. In order to solve the invasion of Asian carp, the United States as early as 2014 the U.S. Army Engineers proposed to spend $18 billion to build a dam to block the expansion of Asian carp into the northern waters, but some experts said that they have found traces of Asian carp in Lake Michigan, which is tantamount to making up for it too late.
In 2018, Illinois launched a more realistic plan to pilot, the state government to buy Asian carp from fishermen for 10 cents per 10 pounds of Asian carp, and then send the purchased fish directly to the processing plant for sorting and processing, edible directly to the fresh market, can not be consumed by human consumption into pet feed or fertilizer.
So since then, many local Chinese have also been engaged in the purchase, production and sales of Asian carp, and the treated fish will be made into fish balls, dried fish, sausages, smoked fish and other exports to the Asian market for human consumption, and the other parts are used as feed and fertilizer production raw materials, and some fishing companies can buy about 10,000 Asian carp a day.
But "eating" is a niche crowd after all, which does not solve the problem of The flood of Asian carp in the United States, in the Mississippi River Basin every day there are flying silver carp scrambling to jump on the boat scene, in order to avoid being hit by the sudden flying fish hit the head, fishermen have to wear helmets when they go out of the boat to fish.
Of course, the Americans also took pains to deal with the problem of the infestation of Asian carp, and they also thought of using the power grid to eliminate the carp, but they would not be able to fly over the net, and it would eventually be the native fish that suffered.
Americans who have repeatedly lost the "Asian carp" battle have to come to China to "move rescue troops", and Jim Garvey, an American Asian carp expert, once led a team to China to find a solution to the flood of Asian carp in the United States.
However, it is worth mentioning that the Asian carp native to China is generally "alive" but childhood, generally in 3-10 pounds, such fish meat is more delicate and tender, and the Asian carp growing in The Waters of the United States is not very good, so there is no market, plus between China and the United States across the Pacific Ocean, almost the variety is just labeled "foreign label", but the price is expensive, who will buy it?
Of course, in addition to driving Americans crazy, Asian carp is also facing the problem of flooding in the waters of some European countries because the climate in Europe is more mild and is also very suitable for the growth of Asian carp.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="241" > summary</h1>
Usually, it is difficult to appear in the origin of a species to grow and reproduce wildly, which is mainly due to the relationship between various organisms in the ecosystem that restrict and influence each other.
However, when a species leaves the place of origin and comes to a new environment, it either becomes extinct because it is unsuitable, or it grows and multiplies wildly because the environment is suitable and there is no check and balance of natural enemies, causing devastating damage to the ecological environment of the invading place. With the frequency of global trade exchanges, there is an increasing chance that species will be "crossed the ocean" to other continents.
According to IUCN statistics, there are about 1,000 of the most threatening alien species in the world, and there are 50 species in China (more than 660 invasive alien species have been found in China), including red fire ants, Brazilian turtles, African giant snails, crocodile eels, Fushou snails, grassland night moths, Crawfish (crayfish) and so on.
At present, biological invasion has become an international problem, how to maintain the ecological balance and protect the diversity of global species, we still have a lot of work to do.