- Title: Battling invasive fish with bows and arrows along the Illinois River
- Date: 20th September 2019
- Summary: ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) PEORIA CARP HUNTERS BOAT CARPOCALYPSE WITH SIX MEN ON THE ILLINOIS RIVER VARIOUS OF THREE MEN IN REAR OF BOAT AT SUNRISE WITH THEM SHOOTING BOW AT FISH THAT HAS JUMPED OUT OF THE WATER MEN TAKING FISH OFF LINE AND PUTTING IN PAIL FISHERMAN LOOKING AT RIVER WITH BOWS IN HAND CLOSE-UP OF HAND HOLDING BOW AND ARROW WITH ILLINOIS RIVER BELOW MEN IN BACK OF BOAT LOOKING AT FISH JUMPING OUT OF WATER BOWHUNTERS' FACE AS HE SCOURS THE RIVER FOR INVASIVE ASIAN CARP VIEW FROM SIDE OF BOAT OF FISH BEING PULLED UP LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN NATE WALLICK, OWNER OF 'PEORIA CARP HUNTERS' RECREATIONAL BOWFISHING COMPANY, SAYING: "I'm Captain Nate Wallach and I run Peoria Carp Hunters. It's an aerial bow fishing guide on the Illinois River. And basically what we do is we go out and bow fish for the jumping Asian carp." ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) BACK OF T-SHIRT READING 'KILL 'EM ALL / PEORIA CARP HUNTERS.COM / EPIC AERIAL BOWFISHING' BOWHUNTER TYING KNOT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ZACH VANDEVUSSE, 23-YEAR-OLD BOWHUNTER, SAYING: "We also have a civic duty to help, try to keep the population in check. It's an invasive species here in Illinois." VIEW FROM BACK OF BOAT AS CARP JUMP OUT OF WATER AND BOWHUNTERS SHOOT AT THEM FISHERMAN STEERING BOAT ILLINOIS RIVER LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN NATE WALLICK, OWNER OF 'PEORIA CARP HUNTERS' RECREATIONAL BOWFISHING COMPANY, SAYING: "So right now the name of the game is to try to knock them down as much as possible and keep them from getting in the Great Lakes, because once they get enough in the Great Lakes, and they can spawn, then it's game over and they're going to have access to basically anywhere they want to go." ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) FISHERMAN STEERING BOAT WITH BOWHUNTERS IN REAR BOWHUNTER SHOOTING CARP / PAN OF BOWHUNTERS SHOOTING CARP JUMPING OUT OF WATER RIVER CURRENT NEXT TO BOAT BOWHUNTER PULLING UP FISH VIEW OF FISH JUMPING THROUGH WATER AS SEEN BETWEEN TWO BOWHUNTERS, ONE HOLDING BOW LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN NATE WALLICK, OWNER OF 'PEORIA CARP HUNTERS' RECREATIONAL BOWFISHING COMPANY, SAYING: "The big reason why these fish are a huge problem is because of their ability to thrive in this ecosystem and their ability to reproduce. Each fish spawns more than once, once a year, lays up to about a million eggs." ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOWHUNTERS SHOOTING AT CARP BOWHUNTER PULLING UP FISH AND PUTTING IN PAIL AS MEN LAUGH INSIDE OF PAIL WITH CAUGHT FISH THREE BOWHUNTERS IN REAR OF FISH WITH FISH JUMPING IN BACKGROUND FISH BEING SHOT BY ARROW ON RIVER BOWHUNTERS SITTING IN BACK OF BOAT VIEW FROM SIDE OF BOAT AS BOWHUNTER SHOOTS FISH BOWHUNTER SHOOTING FROM SIDE OF BOAT BOWHUNTER PULLING UP FISH ON ARROW MAN STEERING BOAT WHILE FISHERMEN WITH BOWS AND ARROWS LOOK OUT SIDE AND BACK OF BOAT BOWHUNTERS SITTING ON BACK OF BOAT WITH ILLINOIS RIVER
- Embargoed: 4th October 2019 11:02
- Keywords: bowfishing Asian carp Nate Wallick Captain Nate
- Location: ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS AND LACON, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
- City: ILLINOIS RIVER, NEAR LACON, ILLINOIS AND LACON, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Environment,Nature/Wildlife
- Reuters ID: LVA001AXGOLS7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:An Illinois firefighter and archery enthusiast is making some extra cash with a novel if modest contribution to the Great Lakes - by taking paying customers out for boat rides to hunt invasive Asian carp fish with bows and arrows.
Nathan Wallick, better known as Captain Nate to his Peoria Carp Hunters clientele, is one of several private operators capitalizing on a bowfishing craze that helps to keep silver Asian carp - voracious, prolific aquatic pests - out of the nation's largest freshwater lakes.
As the 35-year-old pilots his specially outfitted boat along the Illinois River about 120 miles downstream from Lake Michigan, Wallick's patrons test their archery skills shooting at carp with harpoon-like arrows as the shiny, muscular fish leap in bunches several feet out of the water in the vessel's wake.
Wallick, a professional firefighter with a lifelong love of hunting and angling, distinguishes this brand of "aerial" bowfishing from more traditional methods by which archers ply the river at night with spotlights, hunting for carp swimming beneath the surface.
At the end of a daylong outing with six of his regular customers, Wallick's boat returned with a barrel of about 100 carp skewered in mid-air.
"The name of the game is try and knock them down as much as possible and keep them from getting into the Great Lakes, Lakes, because once they get enough in the Great Lakes, and they can spawn, then it's game over and they're going to have access to basically anywhere they want to go," Wallick told Reuters in an interview.
Still, their catch pales in comparison to the huge numbers taken annually by commercial fishing boats working under contract for the Illinois Natural Resources Department to round up Asian carp using large nets.
That effort has removed 8.5 million pounds of Asian carp from the upper Illinois River alone - about a million pounds a year - since it began in 2010, according to Kevin Irons, the department's aquatic nuisance program manager.
The agency welcomes the relatively small added contribution from bowfishing, as every little bit helps, Irons said.
The campaign has so far succeeded in keeping the Great Lakes free of two Asian carp species inhabiting the Illinois Waterway within striking distance of Lake Michigan - silver carp (the jumping fish targeted by aerial bowfishers), and bighead carp, Irons said.
Only two carp have been detected in the waterway beyond an electric barrier designed to keep them out of Lake Michigan, one in 2010 and one in 2017, and both were caught.
Still, scientists need to remain vigilant.
Four Asian carp species now inhabit much of the Mississippi River watershed, while one species called grass carp have made it into Lake Erie, and another, black carp, are encroaching on the Illinois River.
The prodigious Asian carp, which can grow to 100 pounds (45 kg) feeding entirely on plankton, threaten to upset food chains of the waterways they inhabit while crowding out native fish. In the lower Illinois River, for instance, Asian carp account for 70% of all aquatic life, Irons said.
"The big reason why these fish are a huge problem is because of their ability to thrive in this ecosystem and their ability to reproduce. Each fish spawns more than once, once a year, lays up to about a million eggs," Wallick added.
Asian carp were deliberately introduced into the United States in the 1970s as means of controlling plankton blooms in commercial catfish ponds in the South. But through flooding and accidental releases, the carp found their way into the Mississippi and have gradually invaded many of the nation's rivers and streams since then.
The Asian carp is only one of about 180 non-native species that have invaded the Great Lakes basin, including zebra mussels, the aquatic Hydrilla weed and sea lampreys.
(Production: Nick Pfosi, Kevin Fogarty, Arlene Eiras) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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