Re: There goes the neighbourhood...
Here in Louisiana, we have a rodent called a South American Nutria, which is an invasive species. Baically, they look like a rat that is the size of a large housecat.
They were originally imported from Argentina, by people who farm raised them for the fur trade. As usually happens with these sorts of ill advised importations, many of them got loose and they took hold in the wild. The problem with Nutria, is that they are voracious plant eaters and they destroy the marshlands that are so critical for maintenance of the ecosystem, not to mention hurricane protection.
We tried the tactic of encouraging their use as a food item. While they are rodents, they live in a natural habitat (as in, not cities, sewers, etc.) and eat clean plant life. In that sense, they aren't much different than the rabbits that they have been compared to, in terms of taste. Given the view that most people have of eating someting that looks like a rat, however, this program didn't get too far.
Eventually, the state of Louisiana opened a program to eradicate Nutria, by offering a bounty on them. The system that was put into place involved paying as much as $4.00 for each Nutria tail turned into our Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. This program is ongoing and is, I believe, supported with Federal dollars.
The reults of the program have been good, According to a little research that I did on the matter, annual taking of Nutria tends to be about 300,000, with some years closer to 400,000. More importantly, we have reduced out Nutria impacted areas from 80,000 acres to about 23,000 acres. I can attest, simply from the standpoint of being in the bayou a lot, that their numbers have been reduced by a very large margin. I used to see them swimming across the canals frequently and these days, I see them much less often.
Obviously, Carp and Nutria are two different "critters" and the problem with Carp is much different, but I wonder if a bounty program might help. All programs have their ups and down, but ours has worked pretty well. It has also provided economic stimulous, in that it has provided income to people who have long traditions in trapping. Who knows, something similar might work with the fish.
???
