Blog & News
An Update from Our DUC Rep (archive)
Published on Wednesday March 4, 2015
Authored by PEIISC
This Wednesday council member and Head of Habitat Retention and Planning at Ducks Unlimited Atlantic Canada, Jana Cheverie, shares a couple interesting links and information about the work DUC is doing on the Delta Marsh in Manitoba to exclude carp.
Carp are a group of an invasive fish species that were introduced to North America in the late 1800s from Europe and Asia. They out-compete native species of fish and can survive in habitats with low water quality. Their vigorous feeding activity has been suspected of destroying submerged vegetation in many marshes across North America, including Delta Marsh in Manitoba.
Delta Marsh is one of North America’s largest freshwater wetlands (~19,000 hectares) and has been declining over the past 50 years. Ducks Unlimited Canada has been working to restore this marsh, located along the south shores of Lake Manitoba. One component of the restoration is the exclusion of carp. This was done through the installation of screens across the channels leading into the marsh. Carp will leave the marsh in the winter due to freezing of the shallow waters and low oxygen levels. In the spring, these fish try to migrate back to the marsh for spawning, rearing and feeding. The installation of screens has helped prevent these fish from re-entering the marsh.
To find out more about Ducks Unlimited Canada’s research on carp exclusion in the Delta Marsh, please check out the following links below.
http://www.ducks.ca/asse…/…/06/carp_exclusion_-factsheet.pdf