Beware the deadly carp

Most people who have taken even a quick road trip in the South know about kudzu -- the ubiquitous vine imported from Japan that quickly grew out of control and now chokes trees from the mid-Atlantic to the Deep South.

But I bet few have heard about another dangerous life-form, also apparently from Asia, which Southerners are also responible for unleashing in this country. A recent story in The Star (Malaysia) paints this horrifying scenario:

Fish that leap into passing boats may be a fisherman's fantasy, but scientists fear that hyperactive Asian carp will reach the US Great Lakes, devour the base of the food chain and spoil drinking water for 40 million people.

In less than a decade since escaping southern US fish farms, the hardy and voracious carp have come to dominate sections of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

The leaping fish are silver carp that jump haphazardly when alarmed by passing boats and have injured boaters, some of whom have taken up garbage can lids as shields.

This latest example of what environmental historian Alfred Crosby called "Ecological Imperialism" may sound like fodder for a second-rate horror flick, but it's actually a serious environmental issue -- and the voracious carp are close to making a breakthrough:

The only barriers between dense populations of silver and bighead carp - two closely related Asian carp species - and the world's largest collective body of fresh water are a few miles of waterway and a little-tested underwater electrical field spanning a canal near Chicago. [...]

[S]cientists believe the carp, which escaped lagoons in Arkansas during late 1990s flooding, could set off an ecological collapse in the lakes, ruining the primarily recreational US$5bil (RM19bil) fishery and posing a threat to water quality for millions of people.

Is this all a sensational scare, like the 1990s "Killer Bees" hysteria -- with not-so-subtle racial overtones -- about bloodthirsy insects swarming from South America? Hard to tell, although it's clear these fish are voracious eaters, consuming 40% of their bodyweight a day, and they don't have many natural predators.

And wherever these fish are, I wouldn't go out fishing without a garbage can lid.