ARVADA, Colo (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife removed more than a dozen invasive fish, each weighing more than 40 pounds, from an Arvada pond.
Acting on a tip from a community member, Kara Van Hoose and a team of CPW aquatic biologists found 14 invasive bighead carp in the pond at Jack B. Tomlinson Park.
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“These are some of the biggest fish I’ve ever seen,” Van Hoose said. “It felt like deep-sea fishing.”
CPW removed the fish by using electrofishing methods which send electricity into the water temporarily stunning fish.
“It makes it easier to find out what’s going on underneath the water,” Van Hoose said. “Carp normally don’t get this big, but that’s what can happen when you have a species without a natural predator, with unlimited food resources in this pond, without anything to compete with. These fish just kept growing and growing.”
CPW said the bighead carp were first introduced to the pond in 1992 as part of a national study to see if the species would reduce the algal plaguing the ponds.
The fish were removed after the study ended in 1995, or so they thought.
“It’s a testament to how smart some fish are that they can evade capture for that long,” Van Hoose said. “These fish, we think, were part of the original study, so over 30 years old. And we didn’t find any smaller-sized fish, which means they probably didn’t reproduce naturally.”
Van Hoose said CPW will continue to check the pond in the future to make sure they didn’t miss any fish that don’t belong.
Anyone who observes suspicious aquatic species in state waters is encouraged to file a report with CPW.
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Source Agencies
