States
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West VirginiaEcosystem
River/stream
The Lower Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office: Ohio River substation is co-located with the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge in Williamstown, West Virginia and is also part of the Northeast Fish and Aquatic Conservation program. Our substation is relatively new, being established in 2022, and is responsible for monitoring invasive carp (silver, bighead, grass and black) in the mid-to-upper Ohio River. We work closely with several partners including the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Additionally, we are a member of the larger Ohio River Basin Partnership which is a collection of federal, state, and universities that share a common goal of understanding invasive carp movement and distribution in the Ohio River and its tributaries.
Our substation monitors and maintains data from 20 sites within a study area focusing on four pools where we know carp have already invaded, the “presence front” and where we think they are likely to invade next, the “uninvaded front” in respect to the management of invasive carp on the Ohio River. Those mainstem pools are: R.C. Byrd, Racine, Belleville and Willow Island. We also monitor some of the larger tributaries within these pools including the Kanawha River (WV) and the Muskingum River (OH). This information sheds light on fish movement into and out of the various pools and tributaries. This level of information allows managers to potentially locate “hot spots” of invasive carp movement or residence which, in turn, could allow for more successful removal efforts helping to improve the Ohio River fishery.
