MIKE BRAUN Was big carp a 'lost' fish?

The large exotic-species fish that washed up on the shores of Lake Glacier recently may have been one of a quartet of such fish that were purchased in the mid-1980s by a local man. The fish apparently escaped several years later from a man-made pond at the man's home after flooding rain.
The 51-inch-long, badly decomposing specimen was discovered in July by a local angler at Mill Creek Metropolitan Park's Lake Glacier. She spotted something huge floating in the water and called the park police. One park spokesperson termed the discovery a "huge" fish.
Police took scale samples and sent them to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife District Three headquarters in Akron. Four of the fisheries' biologists at the headquarters concurred that the fish found at Lake Glacier was probably a bighead carp.
Bought fish in '86
However, Wendell Jones of St. Albans Drive in Boardman, said he bought four of what he said were described to him as white amur, another name for an Asian carp species, in 1986 for a pond he built at 4646 Hopkins Road near Truesdale Road.
"I bought them from a state-certified fish farm on Calla Road," Jones said Saturday, adding that he had the proper approval -- required for buying this species -- from the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The fish were sold as sterile -- not being able to reproduce, Jones said he was told.
When he bought the four fish for $8 each in 1986, Jones said they were about 8 inches long.
"We had a big rain and the pond blew out," in the early 1990s, he said, washing the fish into Mill Creek. At that time, he said, the fish in his pond were about 40 inches long and 40 pounds.
Jones said he was about as sure as one could be that the fish that washed up was one he'd had in his pond. He said it was probable that his carp washed into Lake Newport and this fish could have eventually made its way down Mill Creek through Lake Cohasset and into Glacier.
Likely, also, the trio left are still in a Mill Creek Park waterway as well, he said.
Figured it was his
"When it was described as having a mouth like a bass, that's when I knew it was probably from my pond," Jones said. He added that despite the fact that the fish found in Glacier was identified as a bighead carp by fish biologists, he was certain that it was from the group he bought in 1986.
According to information gleaned from Internet sites on the carp species, there are four invasive species of carp -- silver, bighead, grass and black -- collectively known as Asian carp.
Information from the U.S. Fish & amp; Wildlife Service show this carp species are native to large rivers in Asia and were brought to the United States by private fish farmers in the early 1970s, and first appeared in public waterways in the early 1980s. The fish are plankton and vegetation feeders, so they eat microscopic plant and animals -- and can reach weights of more than 80 pounds.
Furthermore, the fish apparently can out-compete native fish in the realm of eating, thereby causing a problem in whatever bodies of water they inhabit.
Surprised by discovery
Matt Wolfe, a fisheries biologist at the DOW's Akron HQ, said earlier last week that he was as surprised as anyone at the Glacier discovery.
"This is probably the first recorded instance of a bighead carp so far up the watershed," he said. "It is probably not a natural occurrence."
Wolfe said the fish was likely placed in the lake by someone or transported there. The fish probably did not come upstream, he said, because of barriers such as the 12-foot-high dam at Glacier.
A DOW spokesman could not be reached Saturday about Jones' claims.
Still, the discovery concerns the division enough that plans are being discussed to electro-shock the lake this fall to see if there are more of the fish in there.
News reports about the fish from other areas indicated the fish can jump a considerable height, up to 10 feet. There have been confirmed instances where anglers and boaters have been hit by the jumping carp.
Jones concurred with the carp's jumping ability.
"My wife had a willow tree above the pond," he explained. "Those fish used to jump 2 to 3 feet and strip the leaves off the branches. When I told people that, they thought I was crazy," he laughed.
braun@vindy.com