Humans are losing the fight against flying fish

From the article:

Asian carp have taken over the Mississippi River and dozens of tributaries, where they have menaced native fish by eating much of their food. They’ve also spent years terrorizing locals by leaping from the waves and crashing into boaters, water skiers and fishermen.

“I’ve had them hit me in the arms and legs,” says Carter, who recalls one bone bruise on his shin that took weeks to heal. On one outing near Carter’s home in central Illinois, a flying carp knocked his friend out cold. “It actually hit him between the eyes, dropped him to his knees,” he recalls. Another friend had his nose broken.

YouTube is awash with videos of freaked-out Midwesterners batting the meaty fish from their boats. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the carp can jump as high as 10 feet into the air when spooked by outboard motors or other disturbances.

[...]

Asian carp originated in China and Russia and were brought to the U.S. in the 1970s to control algae blooms in ponds and wastewater treatment plants. Flooding allowed the fish to escape into the Mississippi Basin, and to reproduce at rates that have overpowered native species.

The big worry now is that the carp are migrating closer to the Great Lakes, where they could endanger the walleye, bass and trout that support the region’s $5 billion fishing industry.

[...]

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has also pushed the government to release the funding, saying the fish pose an “existential threat” to the Great Lakes. The barrier would combine a system of locks with an electric shield to stun and repel the fish. Underwater speakers blasting irritating sounds, and a curtain of air bubbles, would also deter the carp.

[...]

The state’s Department of Natural Resources has undertaken a marketing push to rebrand the fish as Copi, short for copious, to distinguish them from the bottom-feeding common carp and make them sound more appetizing. Fishermen and chefs report that Asian carp are actually delicious, though they are so bony they don’t make good filets. Chefs often grind them up and turn them into fish cakes.