By Catherine Smith
By CATHERINE HARRIS SMITH
Utah Lake is full of carp.
According to recent studies, there are more than 7 million carp in Utah Lake and wildlife agencies want them out.
Over the next few years, the government will implement different plans to remove the carp and save the native species of fish.
The June sucker is one of the species. Found only in Utah Lake, the sucker?s population has been depleting because of the high carp population, according to the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program.
?Carp are very veracious,? said Reed Harris, director of the June Sucker Recovery Program. ?They are tenacious in the system, difficult to deal with and hard to kill.?
Carp is a species of fish spawned in Asia and Europe and brought to America in the 1800s.
?Our ancestors had a positive regard for carp and thought it was a species that had some value,? said Don Archer, coordinator of special projects for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. ?They were not well in-formed about potential impacts.?
The common carp, the breed that resides in Utah Lake, has infested the lake and pushed out different species of fish and vegetation.
? are so prolific,? Archer said. ?They tend to be bottom-feeders and stir up the mud.?
The mud that is stirred up by the carp inhibits the penetration of sunlight on the bottom of the lake and stops the growth of vegetation, Archer said.
? was once a clear lake with heavy vegetation,? Archer said. ?Cutthroat trout and suckers live in pristine lakes. They are substantially altered due to the infestation of carp.?
The large number of carp can be attributed to their reproduction rate.
According to the Utah Division of Natural Resources, female common carp produce over 1 million eggs that hatch in one or two weeks.
Carp is considered an invasive species and holds many concerns for the conservation of native species and vegetation.
? generally grow larger than a native species,? said Erin Williams with the Branch of Invasive Species in the U.S. Division of Fish and Wildlife Services. ?A fish grows to be 12 to 14 pounds. Carp grow up to 60 pounds.?
The competition between the fish changes the environment, Williams said.
?The ecosystem is not used to that large of a predator,? she said.
The current plan to remove the carp will include boats and nets, Harris said.
?One million carp will be removed each year over a seven-year period,? Harris said. ?It will reduce the popula-tion 75 to 80 percent.?
It is anticipated that the plants in Utah Lake will return and the water will have more clarity with the reduction of the carp, he said.