The lure of Asian carp: turning a pest into gold

Officially opened on April 12 in Wickliffe, a small town of 700 people, the park is a private-public partnership aimed at reducing local Asian carp populations while creating a zerowaste food-production chain.

The park is the brainchild of Angie Yu, founder and president of Two Rivers Fisheries.

Yu came up with the idea of cashing in on the battle against Asian carp, and in 2012 founded Two Rivers Fisheries in Wickliffe, Kentucky, just south of where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge.

Yu has a knack for turning "waste" into profit. She once developed a business of turning discarded crab and shrimp shells into glucosamine, a popular supplement used to treat joint pain.

In Iceland, where lumpfish were being discarded after their roe was removed for caviar, she exported the leftover fish to China.

Two Rivers Fisheries began processing and exporting carp in 2013. In 2018, the company processed about 2.6 million pounds of carp. This year, they processed 1.3 million pounds in the first quarter. Since starting operations, the company has processed a total of 10 million pounds of carp.

Two Rivers Fisheries is now the largest exporter of Asian carp in the United States and the No. 1 fish exporter by volume in Kentucky.

As the state was looking for innovative ways to attack the Asian carp problem, Kentucky awarded Yu the state's first-ever fish house contract in the fall of 2018. According to the deal, Yu's Kentucky Fish Center will buy Asian carp at a guaranteed price of 14 cents per pound, plus 5 cents per pound subsidy from the government.

All fish at the center will be auctioned off to interested buyers domestically or internationally. The sale will be overseen by Kentucky's Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

The state provided a secured $734,000 loan for fixed assets to help the fish center set up operations. Additional incentives will be awarded every year based on performance.

The fish center needs to reach certain goals: get 5 million pounds of Asian carp out of Kentucky waters in 2019 and increase that amount gradually to 20 million pounds a year by 2024. If those goals are met, the loan will be forgiven.

The entire program will cost Kentucky about $4 million. The government estimates that if the program were run by the state, it would cost $3.5 million a year and yield less carp.