A seine event on Spring Lake last week caught 2577 carp weighing 17 TONS! That’s over 34,000 pounds of carp removed from Spring Lake. Check out some awesome photos (with explanatory captions!) from the seine on Facebook page!
Upon discovering all eight of the active tagged Spring Lake fish closely grouped up on the north side of the lake, our partners at WSB & Associates were able to coordinate a seine with a commercial fisherman and his crew. Five tagged carp were ultimately caught along with the 2572 other carp, the average carp weighed 13.2 pounds. The tagged carp were returned to the lake so we can continue to track them and hopefully use them to identify their spawning grounds and future seine locations.
Carp caught during the January 2017 seine on Spring Lake.
The fisherman sold over half of the carp (20,000 lbs!) to a buyer on the East Coast for consumption (yes there’s a market for that) and hope to sell the rest to another buyer. Based on our preliminary population estimate, this seine may have removed as much as 50% of the carp in Spring Lake. Tracking of the carp will continue and future seines will be conducted when conditions allow.
This spring, temporary carp barriers will be placed on connections to wetlands or waterbodies where carp are suspected to be spawning. This comprehensive carp control effort will lead to long-term gains for lake users, Spring Lake residents, and all those living downstream.
The seine was part of a larger carp management grant project funded by a MN Pollution Control Agency grant. You can learn more about the project on the Carp Management page on our website.