In an effort to limit the overabundance of carp in Utah Lake, the Utah Lake Authority is giving a $1,000 cash reward to the person who captures the most carp from the lake.
“When I first started here on the docks, you would look down at the water and you really couldn’t see more than a quarter of an inch down,” Melanie Evans, sailing instructor for Bonneville School of Sailing said.
Melanie Evans has been sailing the lake for eight years.
“Every year it’s getting a little clearer,” Evans said.
She observes the lake become clearer while she is on it almost five times a week.
“What we’re seeing is carp, and we can see a whole body of them which means the water is cleaner, and I think it’s because of all the carp removal they’re doing,” Evans said.
Removing the carp, which are not native to the lake, is precisely what the Utah Lake Authority and its partners have been aiming for for more than ten years.
This year, homes in Utah are remaining on the market for longer.
According to Kelly Cannon-O’Day, more than 60% of Utah Lake’s biomass has been removed in recent years.
“Carp are a big problem because they make the water quality so poor and they’re the ones that make it muddy and rip up the soil and crowd everything out,” O’Day said.
O’Day, the Utah Lake Authority’s communications manager, stated that Utah Lake, which provides more than one-third of the water that enters the Great Salt Lake, is essential to the environment of the state.
“It’s all part of one big watershed that connects everything, and so when we talk about the water quality of Utah Lake, we’re talking about the entire ecosystem here, not just fish, but birds, amphibians, plant life, farming water and drinking water,” O’Day said.
According to her, employing professional fishers has proven to be one of the most successful strategies for controlling carp.
“Their nets were specifically made to catch carp and allow smaller fish to go through,” O’Day said.
She claimed that until carp populations fell to such low levels that it became unfeasible for fishermen to continue, they were paid by the pound.
“Caught so much carp that they weren’t catching as much anymore so it became more expensive to run the specialized equipment,” O’Day said.
They have also employed traps with cameras and sensors as a high-tech alternative.
“The traps actually come up and catch the carp and then they send a signal out to folks at DWR for them to come out and collect the fish,” O’Day said.
This year, a fresh solution has emerged.
“We developed the idea of a fishing tournament, a carp hunt, where you come out and remove carp by any legal means necessary,” O’Day said.
The individual who catches the most will receive $1,000.
“It’s a good thing and it helps the quality of the lake,” Evans said.
