[July 15, 2011] Similarities noted between threatened fish, endangered carp Tweet Jul 15, 2011 (The Leader-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- When an Eau Claire angler hooked an unfamiliar fish Sunday night while fishing in the Chippewa River near UW-Eau Claire, he thought he had caught an exotic silver carp. That would be a bad thing. The carp, native to Asia, are at large in the Mississippi River and moving north. Three have been found in a section of the river bordering Wisconsin, along with seven bigmouth carp, another unwanted carp species from Asia that has escaped into the Mississippi watershed and is moving north. Neither species has been detected yet in the Chippewa River, although it may just be a matter of time until that happens. In some Southern waters silver carp have multiplied to numbers that are harming native fish. Silver carp also are a boating hazard because they have a habit of jumping several feet out of the water at the sound of an outboard motor and have smacked boaters in the face. The angler brought the fish to the Leader-Telegram, where we photographed it and sent digital photos to state Department of Natural Resources Mississippi River biologist Ron Benjamin, who identified it as a black buffalo fish, which is on the state endangered species list. (The Leader-Telegram is not identifying the man who caught the fish because it is against state law to catch and keep an endangered species, and he could be fined for doing so. The man kept the fish because he thought he had caught an Asian carp and wanted to have the fish identified. He did not realize he had caught an endangered species.) Benjamin said he was suspicious when he heard the fish was caught on hook and line because bigmouth carp and silver carp are plankton feeders and typically aren't interested in chasing worms, minnows or lures. "If you think it's an Asian carp, bring it in to us and let us give it a look," Benjamin said. "Understand, though, that because it's a plankton feeder, if it swam up and really hammered a Rapala (a brand of lure), it's probably not going to be one." The Asian carp caught in the Mississippi have all been taken in nets set by commercial fishermen. Still, it's possible one could be snagged, perhaps even in the mouth, Benjamin said, so he wanted to have a look at it. Black buffaloes are big river fish that live in the Mississippi and Chippewa rivers. They spawn in backwaters and are sometimes caught by anglers, usually in high water years when they tend to move upstream. "It would be common for them to run up to the dam in Eau Claire, looking for places to spawn," Benjamin said. The black buffalo is related to two more common species that are important commercial fish in the Mississippi River -- the bigmouth buffalo and smallmouth buffalo. Those fish are netted by commercial fishers and usually sent to markets in Chicago. Bigmouth buffalo are plankton eaters, but smallmouth buffalo and black buffalo eat snails, insects and crayfish, Benjamin said. Unwelcome visitors There are no dams on the lower Chippewa River between the Mississippi River and the dam in Eau Claire, so fish biologists believe it is just a matter of time before Asian carp enter the Chippewa, if they aren't here already. Benjamin said if somebody catches or finds an Asian carp in the Chippewa, he would like to hear about it. But he urged people not to jump to conclusions, noting that 70 percent of all fish species that occur in Wisconsin are found in the local Chippewa, including some rare ones. Many anglers who thought they caught Asian carp actually have landed mooneyes, a silvery fish with large eyes. Mooneyes, which are common in the Chippewa and lower Eau Claire rivers in Eau Claire, will hit a worm or a fly, which again is a clue that they aren't Asian carp, which eat only tiny plankton. A distinctive feature of Asian carp are the fact their eyes are actually lower on their heads than their mouths, Benjamin said. Fish managers are worried what the arrival of Asian carp will mean for paddlefish, a prehistoric-looking fish that lives in the lower Chippewa. Like Asian carp, paddlefish eat only plankton. In some Southern states Asian carp have hurt paddlefish populations because the new carp compete for plankton. Bill Horns, a DNR expert on exotic fish, said Asian carp are found in areas of Asia that have climates similar to Wisconsin, so the carp could clearly live here. It remains to be seen whether they will colonize the cooler waters of Wisconsin in the same numbers they have in some states in the Southern U.S. "I don't think it's going to be that we see what happened in the Illinois River happen everyplace, but of course they're unwelcome wherever they get to," Horns said. Knight can be reached at 715-830-5835, 800-236-7077 or [email protected]. Carp Invasion Asian and silver carp have been making their way into Wisconsin for some time. The first Asian carp netted in Wisconsin waters of the Mississippi River was in 1996, while the first silver carp was netted from a pool of the river near La Crosse in 2008. Altogether about a dozen Asian carp have been caught in the Mississippi bordering Wisconsin since 1996, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. To see more of The Leader-Telegram or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.leadertelegram.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis. 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