WORTHINGTON — Carp can swim, but the Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District Board of Managers is hoping they can’t hide from an upcoming carp population survey in Lake Okabena.
The board has hired Carp Solutions, established in 2015 as a University of Minnesota start-up, to conduct three days of electrofishing, capturing carp, marking them and tagging them before returning them to the lake. The company will then use box nets and the tags to determine their feeding pattern, which in turn will be used to bait, euthanize and remove carp from the lake.
“The Carp Solutions people really are the experts,” said Dan Livdahl, watershed administrator.
The cost is not to exceed $31,162, a price which does not include the cracked corn to be used as carp bait, nor for volunteers to bait the carp and dispose of them.
“It’s a lot of money, but it’s actually less than I thought it might be,” Livdahl said, later adding that most likely, many fishers would volunteer to help out because they’d enjoy seeing the process.
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Carp are an invasive species known for their negative effects on water quality, as they disrupt shallow-rooted plants as they feed, muddying the water and releasing algae-fueling phosphorus, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Potential funding sources for the project include the E.O. Olson Trust as well as money set aside in previous years.
Livdahl encouraged the board to check out the Carp Solutions website, which features video of an automated carp removal system involving a conveyor belt, though that would cost too much to install in Lake Okabena.
“Really the question is… how many fish we have. Do they respond to bait? They’re really hard to catch in Lake Okabena for some reason,” Livdahl said.
Carp Solutions will complete the electrofishing between July and October.
In other news Tuesday, the board:
- Discussed the possibility of putting a dirt trail for biking on a 19-acre parcel between East Lake Boulevard and Minnesota 60, east of Buss Field. Livdahl and Manager Jay Milbrandt will investigate the matter further and report back to the board.
- Agreed to open a business checking account at First State Bank Southwest, after agreeing in a previous meeting that the organization would prefer to have an account with a local bank.
- Approved permits for Gary Linder to complete shoreline repair; stormwater pollution prevention plans for Ocheda Dairy’s planned expansion projects; the city of Worthington’s street and utilities improvements on Eighth Avenue; and DK Buildings’ construction of new homes on East Avenue near the intersection of Nobles County 5.
