Salt Lake City-Some 6 million pounds of carp will be fished from Utah Lake each year for the next six or seven years to remove a threat to an endangered fish found only in the lake, located south of here. Planners are hoping to find a contractor to turn all those fish into fertilizer or use them for some other constructive purpose. Biologists say ridding the lake of the bottom feeders is the most important thing that can be done to remove the June sucker from the endangered list. So far about 160,000 pounds of carp have been removed, but the main hangup is what to do with the catch. “We’d like someone to take the fish and turn it all into fertilizer,” Chris Keleher, assistant director of the recovery program, told Green Markets. But Keleher and others aren’t having a lot of luck. Keleher said discussions have been held with a couple of outside parties, and that a proposal has been received from one company in California. “But we’re still looking for fresh people with fresh ideas to help us,” he added. “We’re still accepting proposals.” Biologists figure there are 7 to 8 million carp in Utah Lake, where they were introduced in the 1880s to provide food for the locals. But the problem is that in such great numbers, the carp tear up bottom vegetation where young June suckers hide to avoid predators. During a pilot program last year, one commercial outfit pulled in about 1.4 million pounds of carp. Most were used for fertilizer at a nearby farm or given to a mink farm. Composting the fish at a nearby landfill is also being considered. In addition, state and local officials have been reviewing proposals for grinding them into fish meal, and flash-freezing them for out-of-state or overseas markets for human consumption. This year’s operations are expected to cost around $1.3 million, with about $1 million coming from federal stimulus funds.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain