A Petition To Keep Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) On Indianas Invasive Species List

This petition is a counter petition to petitions submitted or any moves made to remove the common carp from the invasive species list and re-classify the common carp as a sport fish. While much attention is given to the asian carps, silver and bigheads, the fact is that common carp have destroyed more fisheries than any other invasive species of fish ever has. It has displaced native fish, destroyed vegetation and altered the fisheries wherever is has colonized. Those who wish to remove the carp from the invasive species list use the logic that bass and brown trout are also non native much like the common carp. But this logic is flawed as many scientific  studies have shown. The common carp, bass and trout are indeed non native to many of the waters they inhabit. The big difference is carp are a fish that overtakes, disrupts and alters the waters they live in greatly. Native fish are displaced and vegatation is destroyed. Other non native fish such as bass and trout do not have this effect on the fisheries and do not reproduce in the numbers that the common carp does. So as you can see the common carp is in the same class as the plant Kudzu that has covered much of the south east united states destroying native species. Both are truly invasive and destructive. While they are fun to harvest on hook and line and by bow, they truly can not be considered a sport fish due to their sheer numbers. In most waters they inhabit they outnumber other true sport fish by a hundred to one if not more. Comparing them to bass and other sport fish would be like comparing the starling to a quail and calling a starling a game bird. Both are a challenge to bring down during a hunt but the sheer numbers of the starlings make them simply too easy to harvest and they could never be considered a game bird.
We strongly oppose any moves to remove the common carp from the invasive species list and reclassifying  the common carp as a sport fish.