Commercial fishers are being offered more incentive to help remove invasive carp from Kentucky waters.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has increased its commercial fishing payment from 10 cents to 15 cents per pound for invasive carp harvested from Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. The move is designed to maintain pressure on invasive silver, bighead, black and grass carp, which threaten native fish and aquatic habitats.
State officials say the strategy is working. In 2024 alone, commercial fishers removed more than 15 million pounds of invasive carp, bringing the total harvest to more than 74 million pounds since 2013. Recent data show no young silver carp have been detected in either lake since 2015, and catch rates have dropped sharply since 2019.
Additional tools are also helping curb carp populations. A BioAcoustic Fish Fence at Barkley Dam has reduced upstream carp movement by about 50 percent, while experimental fishing methods are allowing crews to remove large quantities of invasive carp with minimal impact on native species — in some cases more than 60,000 pounds per day.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife officials say increasing the incentive will help continue the progress, benefiting anglers, boaters and the Western Waterlands Region’s $940-million tourism economy.
More information is available on the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at fw.ky.gov.
