Fishermen remove 2 tons of carp from Silver Lake to improve water quality

Professional fishermen pulled more than 4,000 pounds of carp out of Silver Lake in a single day in January. It would have been upward of 10,000 pounds — nearly the lake's entire carp population — if the net hadn't snagged and ripped.

Ridding the lake of the species and improving water quality is the goal.

Silver Lake, which straddles the border of Anoka and Ramsey counties, was designated as having "impaired" water (fails to meet one or more water quality standards) by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency more than a decade ago.

Its shoreline neighbors — Three Rivers Park District, Rice Creek Watershed District and the cities of St. Anthony, New Brighton and Columbia Heights — have partnered to improve the lake's water quality. They have pooled together $30,000 to pay for the effort, including carp removal, which started this winter.

A water-quality study recommended that most carp be removed from the lake.

"One of the improvements mentioned is removing the carp because they consume all the vegetation in the lake," said St. Anthony city engineer Todd Hubmer. "They also stir up the bottom of the lake. It makes it cloudy and it stirs up the nutrients into the water column, which makes algae grow. None of the carp species are native. They swim up ditches and channels. They will get transported by fishermen or in minnow buckets."

The carp also upset the native ecology, Hubmer said. Bluegills, crappies, perch and largemouth bass feed on carp eggs and minnows instead of zooplankton and other native food sources.

Carp typically school under the ice in midwinter. When the transmitters showed they were schooling, professional fishermen scrambled within 24 hours to remove them with a large net. They drilled holes in the ice and strung a net using a remote-control submarine.

About 400 carp, averaging about 10 pounds apiece, were harvested; that's about 40 percent of the lake's carp population. Hubmer said the operators believed they had nearly 1,000 fish in the net, but it snagged and ripped on an unknown object on the lake bed.

Native fish caught in the net were tossed back into the lake.

The carp were sent to factories for processing. Carp is used in pet food and fertilizer and is sometimes flash-frozen and sent to other parts of the world for human consumption, Hubmer said.

Carp removal is just part of a bigger plan to improve water quality at the 72-acre lake, which also has high levels of phosphorus. The neighboring cities have worked to control runoff with improved stormwater ponds, basins and rain gardens.

Silverwood Park, managed by Three Rivers Park District, occupies about half the lake's shoreline. This is Three River's first participation with a carp harvest.

"You are trying to knock back the population enough so they are not a significant impediment to getting a healthy system," said Rich Brash, senior manager of water rescue for Three ­Rivers.

Hubmer said that all seven carp with the transmitters remain in the lake and that another attempt to remove the rest of the carp is likely next winter.

Hubmer said that there could be a noticeable improvement in the native plant population this year but that he's unsure whether residents will detect an immediate difference in water quality.

"Lakes take a while to respond to these types of systems," Hubmer said.