Illinois rivermen dread impact of invasive Asian carp

Dallas City, Ill.

Henry "Doc" Rockhold describes his work as "no brains and all brawn." It's part self-deprecation and part recognition of how 40 years as a commercial fisherman on the rivers of Illinois have made nearly everything about his work second nature.

At 71, he knows he's in the final stages of his fishing career, yet if he could, he'd squeeze in two more decades chasing the catfish, buffalo and freshwater drum the Mississippi River offers. But the industry and Mother Nature have combined to throw him a curve.

Asian carp are here and slowly pushing out the native fish -- a scenario many fear could replay in Michigan.

Along the Mississippi River, the carp -- whose two main family members can easily reach 60 to 70 pounds or more -- vacuum up the zooplankton and fry that serve as the diet for the native fish Rockhold catches. It's a new reality in Illinois that has brought drastic changes to the fishing industry, altering what commercial fishermen catch, how they catch it and what they earn for their work.

With the carp stealing food from his catfish and drum, Rockhold's future here is uncertain. To some, mainly those who have targeted the Asian carp for harvesting and sale, the fish has been a boon, raising profits and opening new markets overseas. The total yearly commercial fishing haul for Illinois hovers between 5 million and 7 million pounds. In 2007, the last year records are available, Illinois produced a total of 7.2 million pounds of fish, with Asian carp making up half that amount.

In the next year and a half, the state hopes to harvest more than 30 million pounds of Asian carp. Bighead and silver carp bring in far less per pound than other native fish, but they are available in large numbers, so fishermen target them for volume.

Commercial fishing in Michigan is done almost entirely on the Great Lakes and it is unclear if Asian carp will be able to flourish there if they break through measures designed to keep them out. A sustainable population in the lakes could transform Michigan's $10-million-a-year commercial fishing industry. And if Asian carp populate Michigan rivers such as the Grand, the Kalamazoo and the Muskegon, it could make those areas targets for commercial fishing as well.

Native fish decreasing

"The commercial fishing industry -- the freshwater on the Mississippi River and the Illinois River -- you know we're just surviving," Rockhold said after a morning hauling catfish into his two-man boat. "It's kind of a dying industry. ... And these Asian carp are really going to hurt us."

By 10 a.m., he and his lone crewmember are back on shore in tiny Dallas City on the Illinois-Iowa border, heading south toward Niota, where they'll hand over a catch -- "not the best in the world" -- at Quality Fisheries. The owner, Kirby Marsden, is also president of the Illinois Commercial Fishing Association. Marsden has been studying the impact of the carp since it first turned up in Illinois waters a decade ago.

"What we've found out in places where there've been a lot of (Asian carp) for many years, you see lesser amounts of what we call sports fish ... things like crappie, bass, bluegill, walleye," Marsden said. "We're seeing decreasing numbers of them (as well as) our fish, what we call commercial fish -- which is buffalo, carp and catfish mainly ...

"Also, in certain areas where (Asian carp) are really, really thick, all of the (native) fish will be thinner. There's just not quite as much food for everybody."

How bad is it? Marsden believes that in some areas Asian carp make up 95 percent of the living creatures in the Illinois River and up to 80 percent in parts of the Mississippi.

Roughly 90 miles due west sits Chillicothe, a town of 6,000 that revolves mostly around the Caterpillar Inc. plant -- "Big Yellow" to the locals. On a Wednesday morning, John Kreite is parked along the bank of the Illinois River watching a wrecking ball take down a 10-story grain silo.

Both the economy and the fishing here have taken hits in recent years, and watching a local landmark get torn down is as exciting as it gets some days. Like Rockhold, Kreite is 71 and has seen the changes brought by the Asian carp.

"To know what they're doing to the river and seeing them take all of the native fish out ... it's kind of like doomsday for the people who care about this river," he said.

Fishermen adapt to carp

From a distance, the twin boats crawling along the Illinois River toward Lacon's public landing look like they're about to sink. Piles and piles of bighead Asian carp will do that.

The lead boat is run by a familiar face among fishermen in Illinois. Orion Briney, 51, is among the most successful Asian carp catchers around. Today, his 20-foot metal Jon boat is bringing home 10,000 pounds of the wriggling, slimy fish, making him the low man for the day. His partner's boat is carrying 11,000 pounds.

When the Asian carp arrived 10 years ago, they tore through the nets of commercial fishermen, who were not expecting 60- to 70-pound fish. Since then, fishermen like Briney have adapted, using larger boats, stronger nets and changing their tactics.

"When you pull into a lake, they're already taking off," he said of the carp. "They've heard you ... and they're already going the other way. But we've learned. ... We set up ahead of them and we corral 'em and get 'em in here."

The payoff has worked its way down the line from Briney to his crew members. Among them is Jeremy Fischer who, on this day, wears shorts, a tank top and boots -- all covered with the scales, blood and slime of bighead Asian carp.

At 30, he's married with three children, ages 10, 7 and 3.

"I make twice as much now because there are much more of (the Asian carp)," he said. "I was able to get a new house for my family -- well, a house that was new to us. If it weren't for the bigheads, I probably wouldn't have been able to do that. They've done a lot for us."

Briney's two boat crews are among a handful in Illinois that have capitalized on the Asian carp's presence. Tapping into markets for the fish, mostly overseas, was a key factor in these fishermen's success. But having the means to upgrade boats and equipment to meet the new demands has been another key component.

For people like Rockhold, deciding to become an Asian carp fisherman is not an option.

"There's a limited market for them," he said. "The ones that have got it right now have pretty much got the market sewn up."

With the boats hauled onto trailers onshore in Lacon, crew members throw tarps over the still-live fish and weigh them down with large tires and heavy boards. A 60-second trip over the nearby bridge brings the heavy-duty pickups to Willie's Homemade Tamales for takeout -- part of the crew's ritual.

Once the food is secured, the race is on to get the fish on ice at the distributor.

Capitalizing on invasion

Two hours speeding northwest over back roads bring Briney's crews to Thomson, near the Iowa border. Here, Mike Schafer is guiding the family business into a new age.

When it began in 1955, Schafer Fisheries was a mom-and-pop operation where the family caught and sold its own fish. Over the years, expansion had the Schafers taking in native fish like catfish, buffalo and bass from as many as 10 fishermen.

These days, Schafer Fisheries and Big River Fish Corp. are the main players capitalizing on the Asian carp's invasion. In 2009, the company sold more than 12 million pounds of carp and carp products. It has taken some modifications, like bringing in a specialized deboning machine from Germany and the addition of some workers, but the company is positioned to ramp up the amount of Asian carp it sells in the coming years.

"Our goal this year is 36 million pounds, which is what the state would like to see harvested," said Schafer, 46. "I don't think we're going to meet that goal, but we're not going to be too far off." State of Illinois officials have shown an increasing degree of interest in the Asian carp market this year as pressure has increased from neighboring states to stop the fish's spread toward the Great Lakes. Fishing them out of the waters is one approach, and Illinois has anted up to help commercial operations do that.

In July, Gov. Pat Quinn pledged to send up to 30 million pounds of Asian carp to China, one of the burgeoning overseas markets for the fish, by the end of 2011. To help process those pounds, the state committed $2 million to facility improvements for Pearl, Ill.-based Big River Fisheries this year, the other major distributor of Asian carp in the state.

"If we can fish and catch up to 30 million pounds of (Asian carp) on the Illinois River, we should be able to push back their northern movement," said Ross Harano, marketing director for Big River.

Expanding markets in places like Israel, where the Asian carp are used for gefilte fish patties favored by the Jewish community, have Schafer looking to double the size of the family business in the next three years.

But those who have hitched their companies' progress to that of the Asian carp's see some warning signs. Five years ago, the bighead carp being pulled out of the rivers regularly tipped the scales at 50 to 100 pounds. Now, Briney said the typical carp he brings onboard is closer to 20 pounds.

"I worry more about the other end, about sustainability," Schafer said. "I think populations may get low enough to where it's hard to maintain a continuity of supply for the customers." Marsden said it would take a large number -- between 40 million and 50 million pounds of Asian carp pulled from Illinois rivers each year -- to begin reducing the population.

"The fishermen are quite capable of catching these fish, but we need to develop the market for them," he said.

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