Carp are invasive species. When bowfishing, we usually try to find someone who will take them, but if not, we bury them. The carp are overrunning my local reservoir. It has been nothing to see hundreds in the shallows the past couple of years. In that same time the bream and bass fishing have plummeted to practically none existent. I've included an excerpt from an article written about the affects of carp on a body of water. I agree that shooting carp is akin to shooting prairie dogs. They have to be controlled, and it's a ton of fun.
"After the tributaries were cleared of carp, we placed fences across two of them to prevent carp from reentering, and monitored bottom food organisms, zooplankton, water clarity, and submerged aquatic plant abundance above and below the fences. A comparison of the two locations would help us identify the effects of carp. Water samples collected before and after the rotenone applications are being analyzed by the North Dakota State Department of Health to assess effects on water quality. Of special interest is how decaying carp affected nutrient levels of the tributaries.
Within 24 hours after the carp were removed, water clarity within the tributaries increased remarkably; from only a few inches with carp to more than two feet without carp. The increased visibility above the fences persisted the rest of the summer.
The clearer water above the fences enabled submerged aquatic plants to flourish, so that by the end of July, areas less than two feet deep were completely covered with submerged vegetation. Submerged vegetation abundance also increased in deeper areas of the tributaries, as well as in the main reservoir. In areas where submerged plants grew, seine catches of young-of-the-year game fish were five times higher than in areas without vegetation.
Overabundant carp can severely deplete lake bottom food sources needed by species such as yellow perch, bluegills, and channel catfish."
