Do the carp pose any physical threat?
Yes. The fish are known to jump up to 10 feet into the air when frightened. In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency reported injuries to boaters that included black eyes, broken bones, and concussions due to collisions with the fish. “If a boat’s going 15 knots and a 40-pound fish hits, [it’s] going to injure people,” says Thomas Murphy, former editor of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Kurt Hettiger, chief aquarist at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, recalls motoring through waters while holding garbage-can lids to protect himself from the fish’s flinging bodies. “If you’re motoring along where their biomass is heavier, they jump all over the place,” he says.
