Grass carp to annihilate pesky weed<\/b><\/p>\n
The carp are coming to the rescue at Lake Fenwick Park.<\/p>\n
Kent city officials plan to stock Lake Fenwick this summer with as many as 600 grass carp in an effort to control Brazilian elodea, a noxious weed that threatens to overtake the lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to get the fish in there within a month and they eat like crazy and annihilate the Brazilian on the bottom,\u201d said Matt Knox, a city environmental ecologist in charge of the project.<\/p>\n
Over the last few years at Lake Fenwick, swimmers have become entangled in the aggressive weed. The weed also forms dense beds that reduce water quality. And the invasive weed could spread to other lakes if a small piece gets stuck on a boat that later enters a different lake, Knox said.<\/p>\n
City officials have applied for a stocking permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to do the task. It\u2019s up to state officials to determine how many of the hungry carp can be stocked in the lake.<\/p>\n
The lake is the highlight of the 140-acre park that lies just south of Reith Road at the base of Kent\u2019s West Hill. The lake is fairly shallow and reaches 28 feet at its deepest point.<\/p>\n
City officials tested the lake in 2000 and found the Brazilian elodea growing on the bottom. The weed had started to crowd out native plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like blackberry bushes that take over your yard,\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n
Brazilian elodea used to be a common decorative plant for home aquariums in the 1980s and 1990s. Due to its ability to infest lakes and other water bodies, Washington has since banned sales of the plant.<\/p>\n
In the case of Lake Fenwick, it was most likely an aquarium that started the trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone probably dumped goldfish from an aquarium in the lake and that\u2019s how it got established,\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n
Grass carp are the only fish that eat the weed, and actually prefer it over other plants. Other jurisdictions also have used carp to control the weed. Knox said the city decided to try putting fish in the lake, rather than using an herbicide or bottom-barrier materials to keep the weed at bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a number of lakes in Western Washington and throughout the United States where they have worked,\u201d Knox said of the carp.<\/p>\n
City officials also must install a fish screen at the lake\u2019s outlet channel, to ensure the carp stay in the lake. A 40-foot culvert with angled sides and a few blocking bars will be used as a barrier.<\/p>\n
The carp, which are sterile, will be about 8 to 12 inches long initially, but can grow as long as 4 feet and weigh as much as 40 pounds. Carp can grow as much as 10 pounds per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smaller (carp) start eating like crazy,\u201d Knox said. \u201cBut they slow down as they get older.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials have yet to figure out where they will purchase the special fish. Carp can cost anywhere from $5 to $15 each, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The city has received grant funding from the state to help pay for the project.<\/p>\n
The fish would be transported to the Kent lake via tanker truck or possibly air-freighted in, Knox said.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t expect to see dramatic results right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, it will take a couple of years before we notice much difference,\u201d Knox said about how fast the carp might eradicate the weeds. \u201cWe\u2019ll watch it each year and maybe have to add fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knox emphasized to anglers the importance of leaving the grass carp in the lake, although there are still opportunities to catch bass and rainbow trout at the lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage fishermen to leave these guys alone,\u201d Knox said. \u201cWe hope to improve the fishing habitat in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knox didn\u2019t know how many people might be willing to even eat carp.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody will eat anything anywhere,\u201d Knox said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know of anyplace that serves carp burgers around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Steve Hunter at 253-872-6600, ext. 5052 or shunter@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The carp are coming to the rescue at Lake Fenwick Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":10436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10435"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}