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 e-Newsletter
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Local and state officials are talking with fishing and shipping companies as well as others about potential uses for the plentiful supply of Asian Carp in the Illinois River. More than a decade after the arrival of the invasive species some are considering ways to use the fish and make money. The initial consensus is the Peoria-area could benefit from Asian carp processing facility. Peoria County hosted a conversation that included the Department of Natural Resources. Brian Watt is with Select Logistics Network. He says the Peoria-area could benefit from creating a place to freeze and store freshly-caught carp from the Illinois River: “Fish that’s being sold in China, you pull it out of the water, it starts dying right then and there producing…histamines right away,” Watt says.
“That being the case, you have to get the fish into a blast-freezer operation as quickly as possible so the fish is as fresh as possible in order to be palatable to the Chinese consumer.”
Watt says it would also be helpful to have more government grants available for businesses working to reduce the number of Asian carp in the Illinois River. That may also require some additional incentives for fishermen who say the invasive carp take a greater physical toll to catch.
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