Matthews-Mint Hill - Carolina Weekly Newspapers

Around Town
They arrived drugged, ready to eat weeds
1,200 carp restock local
lakes to control weeds
by Mike Anderson
news@matthewsminthillweekly.com
At 8 a.m. June 8, a truck arrived at
Duke Energy’s Riverbend Steam Station,
parked about 25 yards from the shores of
Mountain Island Lake and pumped 500
fish through a long, white tarp tunnel into
the water.
The carp, which the crew drove from
Arkansas, were mildly drugged for the ride
around North Carolina. Upon entering the
water, a couple stragglers remained close
to the tarp and swimming in circles for a
while before they eventually found their
way to begin doing work on the lake.
This stop at Riverbend Steam Station
was the truck’s second of the day. The
truck’s crew also released 500 carp into
Lake Wiley and 1,200 into Lake Norman
that day, Duke Energy representative Erin
Culbert said.
The job of the fish: Eat. They’re supposed
to digest noxious weeds, or any
plant the N.C. Aquatic Weed Council
designates as harmful to the environment.
All the plants come from other parts of
the world, and American ecosystems like
Charlotte’s are not prepared to accommodate
them. These weeds disrupt water
routes, cause erosion and flooding, foster
growth of mosquitoes and other pests,
crowd out recreation space and compete
with other, more beneficial vegetation.
Most importantly, the carp protect the
quality of our drinking water, according
to Karen Whichard, a spokeswoman with
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities.
The fish have met expectations, too, as
the weeds have remained under control in
all three lakes.
The state, Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Utilities, the City of Gastonia and Duke
Energy collaborated on the carp project.
Mountain Island Lake began to have
a problem in 2000, but in the decade
since then, the carp have proved a wise
government-business investment. The
four groups pay to restock Mountain Island
Lake annually, and the N.C. Aquatic
Weed Control Council keeps an eye out
for any further growth and sometimes
calls for extra carp, including the June 8
delivery.
Thanks to the weed eaters, the shores of
Mountain Island Lake are relatively clean,
whereas they used to be covered in a weed
called hydrilla, according to Whichard.
Although herbicides and mechanical
equipment do the trick, too, the fish are
ideal eradicators, Whichard said. “It allows
us to treat the weed infestation without
using chemicals” that might reduce
the quality of our drinking
water.
While carp have become
infamous in Lake Michigan
because they are multiplying
and crowding out native
species, the fish delivered
to the Charlotte-area
lakes do not pose the same
threat. The carp were sterilized
before they entered the
lakes.
The fish survive about
eight to 10 years, according
to Bobby Bowen, one
of the Duke Energy crew at
Mountain Island Lake that
Wednesday morning.
This method is relatively cheap, too.
The 500 new fish in Mountain Island
Lake cost about $2,500, Whichard estimated.
The state foots 50 percent of the
bill while the other three groups split the
rest.
Although originally, the foreign weeds
have found a home in local aquarium
shops and other venues. In tropical fish
tanks, the plants are decorative and seemingly
harmless. They become a problem,
though, when people dump their fish
tank’s contents off their boats into the
lakes. Indeed, the weeds’ spread is mostly
accidental. Boat trailers also pull up the
Mike Anderson/MMHW photo
(Above) Duke Energy summer intern Josh Bowen helps drugged
carp find their way in Mountain Island Lake. The fish were also
recently dumped into Lake Norman and Lake Wiley.
plants and unknowingly deposit them in
other lakes.
A 1996 report by the N.C. Department
of Environment and Natural Resources
names another, decidedly more reckless
and insidious way through which
people introduce the weeds into state
lakes. Some fishermen purposefully
introduce the weeds to make fishing easier:
If uninhibited, the plants grow rapidly
and restrict fish’s movement, therefore
leaving them more vulnerable to
fishermen.
Whichard said she does not know how
prevalent that activity is in local lakes. q
Matthews Auto
Motorcycle Class
Matthews Chamber
of Commerce
2011
Monday, September 5
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sponsors:
Harley-Davidson of Charlotte
Creason Automotive
AAA Carolinas
Shepard Automotive
Carolina Financial Partners
Dean, Heckle & Hill, Inc.
210 Matthews Station Street
Historic Downtown Matthews
Beside the Railroad Tracks and Train
Depot/Caboose in Matthews
Portion of proceeds to benefit
Matthews Police Explorer’s Post
704-847-3649
www.matthewschamber.com
Page 20 • June 24-30, 2011 • Matthews-Mint Hill Weekly
www.matthewsminthillweekly.com