One fine Sunday evening Larry sits down by the river fishing for

catfish, just like any other evening. Only this evening Larry seemed to

be having no luck at all!

With every cast Larry seemed to bring up no catfish, but invasive Asian carp instead. This didn’t bother Larry too

much at first, and he just kept on fishing with the same positive attitude that he always had. That was until one

day…….

Larry had just walked down to the river when he noticed something on

the bank. Sitting dead on the bank of the river was large flathead catfish. Seeing this catfish dead on the bank broke Larry’s lil old heart, and he

knew that something had to be done.

“Honey this is getting real bad.” Larry said to his wife. “If this keeps up I won’t be able to put food on the table.” Despite Larry being very

frantic, his wife was calm and collected. “It will be okay honey.” she

said. “But if you want it to change, then you need to go out and do it

yourself.”

The words of Larry’s wife stuck with him, and Larry decided to do

something about the carp. He grabbed all his poles, a bucket of bait, a large cooler, and headed down to the river.

Larry was going to clear out those carp.

Larry’s first plan of action was to catch all the carp and move them to a

nearby pond. He worked tirelessly, catching carp after carp, only stopping

to eat and sleep. By the end of the week Larry had caught and moved

over fifty invasive carp. But there was a problem, there were more carp than

ever!

After his first plan was a complete failure, Larry decided that he needed help from a higher power. He decided to seek help from the Department of

Natural Resources, or the DNR. Larry scheduled a meeting with a man

named Tony on Tuesday morning. He had his wife iron his best business suit with a his catfish tie for the meeting.

“Let’s make this quick I’ve got a

meeting with an oil company at 4” Tony said to Larry as he straightened some papers. “Well sir I’ve got a real

problem. The river behind my house is being invaded by invasive Asian carp,

and all the native catfish are dying out. This is a real problem because I need these catfish to feed my family. Could

you please help a fella out?”

Tony paced around the room with a

slightly concerned look on his face. “Listen Larry, I feel for you here being a fisherman myself. We at the DNR realize

how big of a problem Asian carp are becoming, but there’s nothing we can do, it’s just too much money” “Please sir you

have to, my family will starve!“ Larry was going to break down when he had an idea. “Sir, come with my to my farm and

I’ll show you just how bad it’ gotten. “Fine I’ll come for one hour.”

“Honey this is Tony, he works for the DNR.”

Larry said to his wife. “Oh hello there sir, have you come to fix our carp problem?“

Larry’s wife said. Larry shot his wife a look to not talk about the carp problem. Larry then walked Tony down to the river. When

they got there, without a word, Larry picked up a stone and threw it into the river.

Hundreds of carp shot up in the air when the rock hit the water. Tony stood there in shock. “I’ve never seen it this bad.” said Tony. Tony then looked to his left and saw a large pile of

dead catfish on the river bank.

“This little display has made me realize

just how bad the problem is” Tony said. “The DNR has now decided that they will help you in your cause, and

you can expect us within a week. You’ve really opened our eyes Larry,

and you really care about the environment.” “I just love the catfish

and want them to be here for my children.“ Larry said.

The DNR began work that next week.

They started putting up electrical gates underwater to stop the carp

from spreading. These gates left other fish unaffected, and just focused on

the carp. Larry and ha family helped as well. They gave information to the

community about carp and what to do about them, and how to identify them.

The next step in the DNR’s plan to

stop the carp was make a policy where all carp that were caught had to be

killed. Local anglers began targeting these carp to try and stop the

population from growing. It was a real community effort.

Two years after Larry met Tony the

carp population had greatly declined. Their numbers had been reduced by nearly fifty percent, and no new carp were getting in. They had also begun

re-introducing catfish to the waterways.

Not only were the carp on the decline,

but a new friendship had started. Larry and Tony now liked spending

their lazy Sundays with their children fishing for catfish down at the river.