Some say Utah Lake carp can be sent to Iraq

John Hollenhorst reportingThe government is looking for people to catch fish in Utah Lake -- about a million fish, as a matter of fact. It's quite possible the fish will wind up in, of all places, Iraq.

Here's the problem: carp, the most unloved and perhaps the ugliest resident of Utah Lake. And there are way too many of them.

A coalition of state and federal agencies is soliciting proposals from fishermen who think they can catch them. "They're the No. 1 problem here at the lake. They've basically destroyed the ecosystem, and we need to get rid of them," said Reed Harris, with the June Sucker Recovery Program.

If you're just a guy with a rod and reel and a bunch of worms, forget it. They're looking for fishing on an industrial scale. "If you can't remove a few thousand fish, we're not interested. We're looking at getting at least a million fish out of here," Harris said.

At five pounds apiece, that's 5 million pounds of carp they want to get rid of in one year. A main goal is to help save the endangered June sucker, which was pushed nearly to extinction by carp and bad water quality.

Commercial fishermen as far away as Minnesota have expressed interest, and there are proposals to market the fish as far away as Iraq. "Iraqis eat a lot of carp, and we'd like to get them over there, and they could be used for humanitarian purposes as well for food for the general public," Harris said.

But it all depends on who comes up with the most cost-effective proposal. The carp could be facing other fates less glamorous than an Iraqi dinner table. "Well, they could be used for compost. They could be used as fertilizer, mink food," Harris said.

The carp catching extravaganza will likely begin this summer. Federal and state agencies have a half-million dollars to spend on the project.

Low-levels of PCB's have been detected in the carp, but experts say they're still suitable for human consumption.

E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com

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