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Research & Education
CARPSIM - A Powerful New Interactive Tool to Evaluate Control Strategies for Carp | FN0599 |
Paul Brown, Snobs Creek
July 2007
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DPI scientists with funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for Invasive Animals and Fisheries Victoria have developed powerful new interactive computer software for researchers, environmental managers and fisheries managers to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed control strategies for the common carp.
This species was first introduced into Australia over 100 years ago. Today carp are the dominant fish in many of Australia’s inland waterways. High densities of carp cause habitat and water quality degradation, which leads to the local exclusion and extinction of native freshwater fish populations. Exotic fish control, including carp, has been included as an important aspect of the Murray Darling Basin Commission's Native Fish Strategy that aims to recover the Basin's native fish stocks from its current 10% to 60% of pre-European settlement values. The demise of some of these populations has impacted the recreational fisheries for native species such as Murray cod and golden perch in many inland waters.
Considerable effort is now being directed through the Invasive Animals CRC Freshwater Water Products and Strategies Program to develop strategies than can be used to reduce and control carp numbers in Australian waterways.
CARPSIM is designed to simulate the likely outcomes of these strategies.
Management activities currently being considered for the control of carp include the following.
- Size-selective removal (e.g. fishing with nets, traps, cages),
- Non size-selective removal (e.g. angling, poisoning).
- Spawning sabotage (e.g. failure of a year-class to survive through habitat manipulation or behavioural disruption etc).
- Sex selective removal (e.g. removal of either males or females through pheromone mediated behavioural manipulation).
- Daughterless-carp (i.e. technology currently being developed by CSIRO to create carp populations that are almost entirely male causing population to decline).
The effectiveness of using combinations of control strategies (e.g. the use of chemical attractants to concentrate carp in an area and the trapping these fish) is also being evaluated.
The functionality built into CARPSIM allows researchers and managers to “program” CARPSIM to simulate the application of any of these management activities at virtually any intensity and in any combination.
CARPSIM does this by predicting the changes each control activity will have on:
- carp of different ages,
- male and female growth rates,
- the numbers of carp surviving from each spawning season,
- male and female death rates,
- density dependent growth, and
- size dependent natural mortality.
Critical to this functionality is that CARPSIM gives the user the ability to select the timing, intensity and duration of the application of the control activity as these factors can determine the success or otherwise of the chosen control strategy.
As environmental factors (e.g. floods, droughts) are also known to influence the population structure of carp, the effects of environmental variability are incorporated into simulations.
CARPSIM will predict the number of years it will take for a control strategy to reduce carp numbers to such low levels that populations are no-longer viable. It also provides an estimate of the probability that a control strategy will succeed.
The simple and easy-to-use format provides researchers and managers with example populations that can be used as templates to model simulated stocks of carp in Australia. These templates can be used as they are, or they can be modified by users to more fully describe any specific carp population that they are interested in.
The power of CARPSIM lies in the fact it can evaluate the impact of pest-management activities on carp populations ranging from a single closed lake, to a large multi-tributary river and wetland system.
While CARPSIM has been designed specifically for the Australian experience, its functionality and power has also excited interest from the United States and New Zealand where it is will soon be evaluated.
Further Information
For more information about his project please contact Mr Paul Brown at DPI Snobs Creek on 03 5774 2208.
Fisheries Research and Education Notes are available on the DPI website.
The advice provided in this publication is intended as a source of information only. Always read the label before using any of the products mentioned. The State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication.
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