I just received this letter from Jim Miller of Mutual Aid Society of America.

Please reply with your thoughts on this:

MUTUAL AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA, INC.
103 Methodist St., Cecilia, KY 42724
Ph. 270-307-4857; fax. 270-862-4379
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

August 28, 2010

Executive Director
Carp USA
Austin Texas 78704 US
E: www.carp-usa.info/contact.html

Re: Mission of Carp Catchers Cooperative

Dear Executive Director:

We are at the early stage of designing a fleet of three ships with which we will commercially harvest, process and sell Silver and Bighead Asian Carp. Our mission statement is as follows:

The Mission of Carp Catchers Cooperative of America is to produce food, feed, and fuel from the biomass of Asian Carp harvested from the national rivers and lakes. Asian Carp (Big Head and Silver) are species of carp which have devastated the native fish population of our major rivers, lakes and tributaries. Carp eat the bottom end of the food chain – the zooplankton and phytoplankton which normally support the higher side of the food chain critical to the native fishes of our nation.

Our methods of harvest are highly selective and enable us to sort out and immediately return game and other non-trash fish to the water. This process harvests carp for the food value in the form of fresh and frozen fillets of white, tasty meat, and canned and processed white meat (fish sticks, etc.). The remainder of the fish and trimmings are ground, boiled and the oil removed for further processing into Omega III health food supplements and biodiesel. The fish meal is highly nutritious fish meal for animal feed.

Our goal is to greatly reduce the carp population from the infested waters and thereby allow the native fish to repopulate their species in a sustainable environment. Nothing goes to waste or pollutes the waters. Our boats move along the rivers, using the biodiesel we make from the fish oil. We provide jobs, food, feed, and cash flow to the local economies along the rivers.

Carp Catchers Cooperative (CCC) will be organized as a worker cooperative which will democratically own and manage two enterprises: Shipbuilding of fleets of three ships consisting of the harvester, the fish factory, and the flotel for the crew residence. The hulls and structural members will be mostly wood.

The composition of CCC as a worker cooperative will be multi-cultural, with emphasis on diversity and encouragement and maintenance of the indigenous culture of each cultural group. The shipyard will have about 50 workers and each fleet will have about 50 workers. We estimate that four fleets will be needed for twenty years or more to reduce the ratio of Silver and Bighead carp to native fish from 19:1 to below 1:1. These fleets will ply the mid-American rivers of the Mississippi River Basin from the Gulf to the northern tier of states. We seek the cooperation of Carp USA in helping establish the Carp Catchers Cooperative. We would treat the common carp and grass carp as native fish to be returned, unharmed, to the river.

We intend to focus on diverse cultures, including Native American Indian cultures, African-American cultures, northern European cultures, eastern European cultures and meso-American cultures, all steeped in the fishing culture. The result sought is the maintenance of the unique cultures and the cross-teaching and learning which close contact and daily working and living relations will promote. Our hope is that the children of the workers will learn the diverse languages, arts and sciences found among the groups. Since we will be involved in fish harvest and preparation, a variety of cuisines will be of great interest.

As a worker cooperative, each member will have one vote in the General Assembly which is democratically constituted. All workers earn the same rate per hour, except for workers whose skills and background result in a professional license or certificate. Additional compensation comes from a division of quarterly profits. No worker can earn (totally) more than three times the lowest paid worker.

Ideally, there would be a group of members of Carp USA who are interested in fishing for “Silverfin” (Silver and Bighead) and in being part of a multi-cultural worker cooperative. We are interested in putting together a core group of skilled workers, both for building the wooden ships (and some steel) and for operating the fleet as crew and for harvesting and processing the Silverfin. We are especially interested in diversity of age, disability/ability, gender, and cultural ethics. We intend to be family-centric as a goal.

The importance of the Carp USA members can help us lead the formation of a multi-cultural worker cooperative involving other diverse cultural groups. This letter is one of inquiry as to the level of interest Carp USA may have in the CCC business plan, which may be viewed at: carpcatchersco-op.wetpaint.com/page/BUSI...OVER+TROUBLED+WATERS

Your reply and comments will be appreciated.

Sincerely yours,


James E. Miller, BA, BS, JD

I applaud the concern and effort of what is obviously a serious problem. The asian silver and bighead carp are without a doubt a very invasive species to our waterways. Even though there has been a commercial market for these fish for several years, and many boats fishing them, there has not been a significant drop in their populations.I feel it will be a huge undertaking and require much dedication of these fisherman and fleets to make a serious dent in the infestation. Im all for the project on many levels including the waterways as well as the food source benifits and jobs for many people. After looking through this post and reading that "Common carp and Grass carp will be returned to the river unharmed" and then visiting CCC's website and reading "All non-market carp (I.E. Common and grass carp) as well as dead carp would be ground up into fishmeal,etc" I must admit I'm a bit confused on where exactly you stand on the issue of Common and Grass carp conservation?
Message emailed to jim miller.

Response to above email:
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Chris,

Thanks for the email and your support. Our policy is and will continue to be to return all non-invasive fish and amphibia to the waters from which they are taken, almost immediately and unharmed. Specifically, we will return all species of carp except Silver and Bighead. In addition, we plan to have a full time fish biologist who will enforce the policy and assist us in improving the catch and release procedures so as to do as little harm as possible to the non-invasive species.

You are correct to conclude that the small boat fishermen (skiffs plus gill nets or hoop nets) cannot hope to overcome the ability of the Asian carp to populate the rivers. We should applaud their efforts; however, the combined catch of Asian carp should be in the millions of pounds per year, not the current thousands of pounds.

The CCC approach is similar to that of the sea fishing where trawlers fish over a wide area, then bring their catch to the factory ship for canning. The CCC approach is a bit different in that all three ships are joined mechanically as well as through utility and communication lines, so any worker can walk from ship to ship. This approach will allow the entire operation to move along rivers to the point where the river is shallower than three or four feet. At that point, then we would need to contract with the skiff and gill net fishermen to proceed further toward the head waters of the tributaries. Like the sea fishermen, they could, if they wished, return the catch to the factory ship (Carpe Carpae) and get paid on the spot. This approach makes eminent sense since the local fishermen know the streams and rivers in their areas much better than CCC and will receive a higher price per pound than they could get selling to the fish wholesalers.

I hope this explanation answers your question.

Jim Miller

Thanks Chris for getting this confirmed.