How bad are Asian Carp?

This is how you deal with them!

Carp Hunting

I'm not sure our egislators care about water sports.

I am in the Peoria, IL area. My family and I do ski & board in the Illinois River where this video was shot. I can't speak to the ecological effects, but I can say we have never been hit by an Asian carp or had one jump in the boat, but we have come close - maybe we have just been lucky. In my experience, the fish are more easily spooked by the aluminum fishing boats with outboard motors running in shallower waters. Skiing in the channel rarely causes them to jump. There are several groups that run bow hunting trips in the area and they get them to jump like popcorn behind their boats, similar to the video above. There have been several attempts to fish them commercially for export and to be used in fertilizers, but none have really taken off to my knowledge. You don't want them, that's for sure, but I am not sure what can be done to stop them. I know they have various barriers in the Chicago area, but its probably just a matter of time before they continue to spread into the GL region.