Grass Carp Industry Perspective: Impacts and Consideration

Most states that allow the use of grass carp as a biological weed control agent, require sterile triploid grass carp, a few states still allow the use of non-sterile diploid grass carp, sometimes to the chagrin of their neighboring states. Often cost is used as a basis for the continued use of diploid grass carp but an examination of the wholesale cost difference between the two alternatives questions such a justification. The possible injurious listing of diploid grass carp by the USFWS, if upheld in the courts, would effectively prohibit the interstate transportation of diploid grass carp but would have many unintentional side effects, some of which might actually increase the use of diploid grass carp.

By and large, the grass carp industry is located in Arkansas. This industry is dominated by highly regulated private fish farms that normally only produce high ploidy triploid grass carp fingerlings. The number of farms producing diploid grass carp in the United States is extremely small and has shrunken considerably in recent years. The once thriving live Asian carp food fish market that required large amounts of live faster growing diploid grass carp no longer exists, further reducing the demand for diploid grass carp fingerlings.