Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Alabama
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

There is an inherent tradeoff between limiting movements of carps with deterrents (barriers) and minimizing impacts to native fishes unless barriers are operated to allow passage of native fishes. Mismatches in the timing of large-scale movements between native fishes and carps might provide such opportunities to operate deterrents in a manner that limits carps while minimally interfering with population connectivity needed to sustain native fish populations. This is a collaboration among Auburn University and AL CRU, NC State University and NC CRU, MS State University and MS CRU, USFWS, MS Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, USGS’s Columbia Environmental Research Center, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Information gained from this project could help operationalize numerous semi-passable barriers within the Lower Mississippi River region to maintain barrier functionality while allowing native fish passage and limiting expansion of invasive fishes.