The status of fish of the genus Hypophthalmichthys in three pools of the Ohio River'

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The status of fish of the genus
Hypophthalmichthys in three pools of the Ohio
River.
Matthew E. Kinsey IST Dept Watershed Resource
Science Program
Photo, David Schaper, NPR
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Overview

• Introduction
• Life History
• Implications of Introduction
• Objectives
• Materials and Methods
• Brainstorming
• Potential Problems
• Other Angles

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Life History

• Native of Asia
• Introduced into US- control plankton blooms in
  aquaculture and sewage treatment ponds
• Filter feeder
• Fast growing- Silver 1 kg in 55 days (Newton
  1980).
• High fecundity-
• Silver 315,000-1,340,500 eggs
• Bighead 478,000 to 549,000 eggs (Abdusamadov
  1987)
• Abdusamadov, A.S. 1987. Biology of white amur
  (Ctenopharyngodon idella), silver carp
  (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), and bighead
  (Aristichthys nobilis), acclimatized in the Terek
  Region of the Caspian Basin. Journal of
  Ichthyology 26(4)41-49.
• Newton, S.H. 1980. Catfish farming with Chinese
  carp. Arkansas Farm Research 29(1)8.

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Life History
Bighead Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix)
Illustrations by Matt Thomas
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Life History
Illustrations by Matt Thomas
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Potential Impacts of Introduction

• Native Aquatic Community
• Direct competition paddlefish, gizzard shad
• Trophic funneling
• Economic
• Chicago Canal ( 9.1 million exclusion barrier
  .5 million/year)
• Potential recreational fishery (bow fishing/
  traditional)
• Potential commercial fishery

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Objectives

• To determine if gill netting is an effective
  method for sampling Asian carp in the Ohio River.
• To collect baseline data on large bodied pelagic
  fishes pre and post invasion.
• Develop a suite of spawning metrics.

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Gill netting at established ORSANCO NTEF sites

• Compare size recruitment of asian carp between
  boat electrofishing and gill neting.

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Study Sites
Dashields Pool
Hannibal Pool
Smithland Pool
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Experimental gill net
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Experimental gill net

• Efficient at sampling large bodied riverine
  fishes (Argent and Kimmel 2005 )
• Overnight net sets
• Catch evaluated based on effort (net hours)

Photos David G. Argent
Argent D.G. and Kimmel W. 2005. Efficiency and
Selectivity of Gill Nets for Assessing
Fish Community Composition of Large Rivers North
American Journal of Fisheries Management
2513151320
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Ichthyoplankton density

• Sample approximately 100 m3 of water per event
• Record Flow, Turbidity, pH, Temperature, and
  Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of water entering
  net
• Compare above values with observed egg/ larval
  densities (stepwise linear regression)

Flow
Buoy
1 meter
500 µm mesh
Sample collector
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Potential problems

• Time- luckily two summers worth of sampling
• Money- much travel involved (especially
  ichthyoplankton survey)
• Absence or presence where not expected
• Weather (high water)
• Language barriers

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Other angles

• Egg Recruitment Study.
• Develop protocol for in vivo egg marking
• Silver carp effects on Zebra Mussel communities.
• Gear efficacy comparisons with other types
  currently being used in the Aquatic Ecology Lab.

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Acknowledgements

• Dr. Jones and his lab
• Drs Georgel and Blough
• Bio 662
• Marshall University Biology Dept.

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Questions

www.norsketravels.com/images/SiteAsianCarp.jpg

• Please send requests for literature to
  kinsey10_at_marshall.edu (most in pdf format)

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Exploration with mixed gear

• leading edge of invasion- Use Boat and backpack
  electrofishing, gill netting and hand seining to
  determine presence in given areas.
• Juvinile search- Young-of-year and juvenile
  Bighead and silver Carp on the Yangtze River were
  found to recruit to floodplain lakes (Yi et al.
  1988).

Yi, B., Z. Liang, Z. Yu, R. Lin, and M. He. 1988.
A comparative study of the early development of
grass carp, black carp, silver carp and big head
of the Yangtze River. Pages 111-135 in B. Yi, Z.
Yu, and Z. Liang, editors. Gezhouba Water Control
Project and four famous fishes in Yangtze River.
Hubei Science and Technology Press, Wuhan, China.
(In Chinese with English abstract).
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Materials and Methods

• Gill netting at established ORSANCO night time
  electrofishing sites.
• Relate spawning activity (larval/ egg density) to
  basic water parameters on the Ohio River.