Black Carp: Biological Synopsis and Risk Assessment of an Introduced Fish Review by: Wendell R. Haag Journal of the North American Benthological Society, Vol. 27, No. 3 (September 2008), pp. 800-802 Published by: Society for Freshwater Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1899/27.3.BR.800.1 . Accessed: 05/08/2014 14:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for Freshwater Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the North American Benthological Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 158.135.136.72 on Tue, 5 Aug 2014 14:00:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 2008, 27(3):800–804 Ó 2008 by The North American Benthological Society DOI: 10.1899/27.3.BR.800.1 Published online: 5 August 2008 BOOK REVIEWS Black carp: biological synopsis and risk assessment published. The book’s strong and well-supported of an introduced fish. Leo G. Nico, James D. conclusion that black carp represents a high-risk Williams, and Howard L. Jelks. ISBN 1-888569-68– species, coupled with assessment of the potential 9. American Fisheries Society, Special Publications benefit of the species were surely instrumental in this 32, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 110, Bethesda, decision. The book will continue to be an important Maryland 20814-2199 USA. 2005. 337 pp. $60.00 resource as states consider mitigation or restrictive (hard cover). measures within their own borders. The black carp is a rare example of an introduced organism for which Black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) is one of the meaningful control measures have been enacted before latest and scariest in a seemingly never-ending it was too late to at least contain the problem. succession of nonnative fishes appearing in North Therefore, a thorough risk assessment of black carp America. Black carp will be of particular interest to at this time is timely and important. readers of J-NABS because it is a large fish (.1 m) that Despite the importance of the risk assessment, I is specialized for feeding on mollusks. Black carp have suspect readers of J-NABS will be interested primarily the potential to alter food webs radically by eliminat- in the sections dealing with ecology of black carp— ing or reducing grazers (snails) and filter feeders especially Chapters 5 (‘‘Native Geographic Distribu- (bivalves) and to drive the final nail into the coffins of tion’’), 6 (‘‘Biology and Natural History’’), 7 (‘‘Diet and many imperiled freshwater mussels and snails that are Gape Size’’), 14 (‘‘Native Mollusks and black carp’’), near extinction. Black carp arrived in North America and 15 (‘‘Potential Geographic Range’’ [in North courtesy of the aquaculture industry to control the America]). The first 3 of these chapters are the most intermediate host (snails) of flukes that parasitize informative and present previous work on black carp several commercially grown fish species. or related species. Most papers on black carp were The authors’ objectives were to compile biological published in Chinese and Russian, and many are .25 information on black carp and use it to assess the risks y old. These sources are difficult to obtain (in some associated with its introduction and establishment in cases, impossible), and these languages present the North America. About ½ of the 17 chapters deal with additional challenge of accurate translation, such that black carp ecology and the other ½ deal with issues the original meaning is often difficult to interpret. related to the risk and potential impacts (good and These difficulties are compounded by the often bad) of this species in North America. The chapters on incomplete or vague description of methods and risk assessment, parasites and parasite control in results in these papers. The authors are to be aquaculture, and other sections read like a government commended for their thoroughness and tenacity in agency report. Indeed, the book was adapted and wading through this material, providing caveats expanded from 2 versions of a report prepared where necessary, and pointing out potential inaccura- previously (Nico and Williams 1996, Nico et al. 2001) cies or errors. These efforts are responsible for perhaps for the Risk Assessment and Management Committee the most important achievement of the book: making of the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, and this obscure body of information accessible to North published by the US Geological Survey. American researchers. A risk assessment might seem to be a moot exercise The authors provide relatively undigested summa- if the fish already has been introduced, but it remains ries of previous studies so readers will have access to uncertain whether individuals present in the wild as much of the material as possible and can draw their represent established, reproducing populations. Fur- own conclusions. I agree that this manner of presen- thermore, the degree to which existing populations can tation was appropriate to some extent, but this style be contained depends on how the use and transport of can result in sections of long, tedious text. For this fish is regulated in the future. Black carp was example, .½ of a page is devoted to recounting the recently listed as an injurious species under the federal various ways in which 13 different papers described Lacey Act (in October 2007), a status that prohibits the fish as having a black back and a white belly importation and interstate transportation of the spe- (Chapter 4). This section is followed by .1 page cies; the decision was pending when this book was reporting, study by study, that fish reach .1.5 m in 800 This content downloaded from 158.135.136.72 on Tue, 5 Aug 2014 14:00:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2008] BOOK REVIEWS 801 length and 70 kg in mass. It is easy enough to skip over think that the potential cascading effects of this fish on these sections, but some reduction of material was food webs were downplayed or given short shrift. warranted. Several pages are devoted to ways to Otherwise, the book is fairly comprehensive. distinguish black carp from the similar grass carp Some readers will be disappointed by the lack of (Ctenopharyngodon idella), but a concise summary of solid conclusions drawn about many aspects of black diagnostic characters in a short table or key would carp ecology. For example, it is unclear how effective have been very useful. Nevertheless, it is appropriate black carp are in controlling snails in aquaculture to present the raw material here, and it does give the ponds (Chapter 13), and it is difficult to assess whether reader a sense of what the authors must have suffered black carp really are dependent on mollusks or can through to produce this book. exist solely on other food items (Chapter 7). In some The book also can be difficult to read because it cases, the authors reached conclusions that appeared seems to have been edited only minimally. This book difficult to defend. Despite the uncertainty about the was adapted from a technical report but it could have ability of black carp to control mollusks in ponds, the been adapted more thoroughly. Redundancy among authors later seemed to accept as fact black carp’s chapters is extensive. For example, the same informa- ability to reduce or eliminate mollusks in the wild tion on spawning site characteristics is presented in at (Chapter 14). Elsewhere, conclusions can be so broad least 3 places (Chapters 6 and 15 [appears twice here]). as to be unsatisfying: ‘‘Available information on black The extent of redundant presentation of information is carp and data on related species indicate that black reflected by the number of sentences that begin with carp have the potential to survive almost anywhere in phrases like ‘‘As discussed previously’’ or ‘‘As noted the United States where there is suitable habitat and earlier’’; I counted 7 such phrases within 15 pages that food resources’’ (Chapter 15). But again, the authors I selected haphazardly throughout the book. The book have made the wise choice of presenting much of the could have been reduced in length by as much as ½ information in an undigested form. After wading had the authors used a more economical organization through this material themselves, readers will easily and streamlined awkward and wordy construction. sympathize with the near impossibility of making However, these stylistic problems detract only from the readability of the text and do not detract from the many solid conclusions. These uncertainties highlight quality and quantity of information presented in the how shockingly little we really know about this fish in book. either its native or introduced range. The book covers most of the important topics on For people interested in black carp, this book will be black carp and presents some interesting original indispensable. The $60.00 price might seem high analyses. The analysis of gape size and size of North (especially considering the redundancy found American mollusks (Chapter 14) is well done and throughout in the book), but it is a bargain when one shows the proportion of the North American fauna considers the cost and aggravation of finding the that is vulnerable to predation by this fish (answer: original literature and having it translated.