LORAIN — Sportsman Frank Webber said he encountered a large Asian carp last weekend near hot waters in Lorain — a claim that will be investigated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
LaGrange Township’s Frank Webber estimates the length of what he thinks was an Asian carp using his paddle at his home Thursday. Webber was kayaking on Lake Erie near the Lorain lighthouse Saturday when the fish jumped out of the water. (CT photo by Steve Manheim.)
Webber, 60, of LaGrange Township, said the fish leaped out of the water 10 times after he struck it with a paddle while kayaking about 7 p.m. Saturday.
“I came in around the lighthouse into hot waters, and I hit something with my paddle,” he said. “This huge fish shot straight out of the water like a rocket.”
He said the fish leaped up again and again until it was exhausted.
“It jumped up again and again around my kayak like it was insane,” he said. “I went eyeball-to-eyeball with it.”
Webber said the fish had “a big rubbery mouth” and eyes set lower in the head than a regular carp.
When he got home, he looked up Asian carp on the Internet. He said he was convinced he had an actual encounter with the invasive species, which is considered a serious threat to the $7-billion-a-year Great Lakes fishing industry.
Webber, who estimated the fish weighed 40 to 50 pounds, called local game warden Randy White to report the sighting.
Webber will be contacted for additional information about what he saw, said Ray Petering, fish chief at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Asian carp have been found in commercial fish nets in Lake Erie, but the catches are few and far between, Petering said. The last fish carcass was found about six years ago, he said.
Petering said it is possible that Webber saw a regular carp that began jumping after being struck with the paddle.
If Webber saw an Asian carp, Petering said it could have been released by people who buy live fish at Asian markets in Detroit and Cleveland and believe it is “good karma” to eat one and release one.
However, he said the fish should not even be sold because their sale violates the Lacey Act, which combats illegal trafficking in wildlife.
Asian carp were originally imported into the United States in the 1970s to clean catfish ponds, but when those fish farms flooded, the carp made it into the Mississippi and Wabash rivers where they reproduced.
Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
