State Touts Fishing for Silverfin
Silverfin aka Asian Carp
January 13, 2010 | 2theadvocate.com | Tommy C. Simmons, Advocate Food Writer
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries on Tuesday kicked off a marketing campaign to tempt chefs
and consumers to try two species of Asian carp that have invaded the state’s waterways.
Silverfin is the name the department’s marketing department selected to identify the two species of the invasive
Asian carp: silver and bighead.
The Asian carp were first introduced to Louisiana waterways in the early 1970s to aid in controlling plant and
plankton growth in aquaculture ponds and sewage treatment lagoon systems, said Gary Tilyou, LDWF inland
fisheries administrator. The carp escaped to the wild and rapidly multiplied.
Within a few years, Asian carp were displacing native fish and contributing to boating accidents because the silver
carp, particularly, are jumpers.
“Whenever you have 60-pound fish jumping in boats, you have a problem,” Tilyou said. READ MORE...