CLEVELAND, Ohio – Positive tests for environmental DNA, or eDNA, of Asian carp suggest the invasive fish have moved from the Ohio River to more than 80 miles up Ohio's Muskingum River. The carp have reached the Zanesville area, about 115 miles from Ohio's continental divide in Lodi and Akron that separates the Ohio River watershed from Lake Erie.
In a joint venture, the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, The Nature Conservancy, Central Michigan University and the Ohio Division of Wildlife took 222 water samples from the waters of the Muskingum in October 2013. The results announced this week reveal 10 of the samples were positive for bighead carp, which can grow to 100 pounds.
"We have yet to see a live silver carp or bighead carp (in the Muskingum River)," said Rich Carter, head of fisheries for the ODOW. "We're going to keep sampling as we try to understand the potential range of the Asian carp."
Fisheries experts, anglers and conservationists worry Asian carp are getting too close to Lake Erie and the Great Lakes, which could be a disaster for one of the world's finest fisheries. There are 10 locks and dams on the Muskingum River and, if the eDNA tests prove accurate for live Asian carp, the aggressive invaders have already gone through nine of the 10, with only the Ellis Lock and Dam in Zanesville still an obstacle.
Asian carp could then reach the Tuscarawas River and eventually move into the Ohio & Erie Canal and Long Lake, in Akron, a possible route to Lake Erie. Another pathway from the Muskingum River is Little Killbuck Creek on the continental divide, located on the 1,700-acre Hall Growers Inc. farm in Lodi. A small string of dikes there are the only barriers preventing the carp from entering the Black River, a straight route to Lake Erie.
"I still feel we're ahead of the Asian carp, with respect to this situation," said Carter. "We're actively working to close the knowledge gaps in how (Asian carp) are distributed in the Muskingum and Ohio River basins."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning barrier option studies for the Muskingum River and other Ohio pathways connecting the Ohio River to Lake Erie, said Carter. The study is to be completed by September 2014.
The USACE published the Great Lakes/Mississippi River Interbasin Study on Jan. 6, which outlined various barriers that could be constructed along the Asian carp-infested Chicago Waterway System to prevent them from entering Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. The most ambitious barriers would cost $15 billion to $18 billion and take 25 years to complete. While legislators are clamoring for action, none of the barriers have been selected, as yet.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently dedicated $1.5 million to Asian carp sampling and studies in the Ohio River with expanded eDNA analysis. There is little doubt live carp will be found in many Ohio River areas.
Bighead carp were caught last summer at the base of the R.C. Byrd Dam, near Gallipolis, Ohio, and reports of Asian carp even further upstream began to surface years ago. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Asian carp were found in the Ohio River in Marshall County, W. Va. in 1997, and in Ohio's Jefferson County in 2002. They have been in the Ohio River for quite a while, said Carter, with eDNA sampling reporting a positive for silver carp near Aliquippa, Pa. That is located about six miles from the Beaver River and about 30 miles north of the Three Rivers area, where the Ohio River meets the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.