A roundup of Asian carp on Kentucky Lake using 1,000-foot-long (305 meters) nets is opening a new front in a 15-year battle to halt their advance

By TRAVIS LOLLER and JOHN FLESHER Associated Press
February 12, 2020, 3:54 AM
Asian carp are unloaded at Two Rivers Fisheries in Wickliffe, Ky.

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

GOLDEN POND, Ky. — Like a slow-motion, underwater cattle drive, wildlife officials in a half-dozen aluminum boats used pulses of electricity and sound on a recent gray morning to herd schools of Asian carp toward 1,000-foot-long (305 meters) nets.

The ongoing roundup on wind-rippled Kentucky Lake opens a new front in a 15-year battle to halt the advance of the invasive carp, which threaten to upend aquatic ecosystems, starve out native fish and wipe out endangered mussel and snail populations along the Mississippi River and dozens of tributaries.

State and federal agencies together have spent roughly $607 million to stop them since 2004, according to data compiled by The Associated Press. Projects in the works are expected to push the price tag to about $1.5 billion over the next decade.

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