Yes, they are invasive to the US, and to Australia. Yes they have caused considerable damage, but a lot less than irrigation and other man made environmental issues. Lack of flow is Australia's biggest problem. Carp are however blamed for the murk in the water.
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Good to know. Why is it that so many people don't want to eat the carp even though that's the reason it was brought here?
I don't know to be honest. A lot of it has to do with having much muddier, clay banked rivers and warm water which grows a lot of algae which forms a major part of the carps diet supposedly tainting the flesh. I think it is just that people are more used to the less powerful flavour of the white fleshed fish, the ambush hunters with anaerobic muscle for power rather than speed and stamina. A carp has red flesh because of the high amount of hemoglobin in their blood to supply plenty of oxygen to the very active fish.
Interesting. I mainly eat salmon so I don't have a lot of experience with the other fish. I could see how people might not like it. It's unfortunate there are so many of them and not many people want them.
I heard that Australia was thinking of releasing a herpes virus to kill the carp. Yeah, nothing could go wrong with that plan.
Nothing at all. I have actually written a couple of blog posts about it. A nightmare waiting to unfold.