We have a series of technologies, sound, bubbles, electricity and a flushing lock.

Like they're literally running a gauntlet.

… none of which by itself has a 100% guarantee.

But layering them together provides  a variety of challenges to overcome.

You can imagine this lab like a moat,   trying to keep enemies out of a  castle.

But who are these enemies?

They have a unique characteristic between  their air bladder and their inner ear.

Icall it the echo chamber.

That sound is  amplified into their inner ear in a way that causes them to leap out of the  water.

You know, they react to noise.

That was a beamer!

Now, when I signed up for this gig, I did not  agree to get smacked in the face by a giant fish.

But if you live in the Mississippi  river basin, your chances of getting   carp-slapped are definitely not  zero.

That’s because in some places,   invasive carp now make up 60 to 70% of  the river’s biomass.

These fish have transformed the ecosystem and the lives  of people who work and play on the river.

So today, we’re waging a high-tech war  on carp to keep them out of the Great   Lakes.

But the solution to the carp  problem… might not be technological.

I’m Shane Campbell-Staton,  and this is Human Footprint.

Hey, Andrew.

What's happening, man?

Not too much.

How are you doing?

Just went to a Redneck Fishing Tournament,  got smacked in the face by a carp.

Andrew Reeves is a Canadian journalist who  spent 10 years writing a book about Asian carp.

We have this umbrella term of Asian carp, but it  really doesn’t do the individual species justice.

Four species were imported from Asia to American  waters: black, grass, bighead, and silver carp.

They were perhaps one of the last  invasive species that were actually   brought over with the full-throated support  of government and the scientific community.

Each species was brought here with a  specific job to do.

And let’s just say,   the silver carp drew the short straw.

You can't just dump solid waste  into your local waterway anymore.

You can use these fish to be able  to clean up those sewage lagoons.

Just so I’m clear, they wanted to  use the carp to eat human waste?

That’s right.

And around that time,   someone also had the idea of could we also eat  them if they're eating nothing but human waste?

Nobody wants to eat poop fish.

No.

And this was it.

And so they've  kind of had this trash fish reputation.

If the carp had just stayed in their  sewage lagoons, we might not be having   this conversation.

But politics gave  the fish an unexpected opportunity.

I would like to have a crusade  today… and it would be one to   take government off the backs of  the great people of this country.

Ronald Reagan slashed the number of regulations  that the EPA could enforce.

And essentially all   the research that was being done on silver  and bighead just evaporated overnight.

All   of a sudden, they had tens of thousands  of fish, and nothing to do with them.

So,   some people essentially opened the  sluice gates on their properties,   and we're still suffering the  consequences of that today.

In just a few decades, carp had spread through  the Mississippi River and most of its tributaries.

Today, the front lines of the war  on carp are just south of Chicago.

Well, what does the fish say when it  runs into something in the river?

Dam!

I met Scott Whitney at the Brandon Road Lock and  Dam.

Scott isn’t just a purveyor of bad puns, he’s also been fighting invasive species for  decades with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Scott’s marching orders?

Use whatever  means necessary to stop the carp from   entering the Great Lakes, where scientists  worry their impact could be catastrophic.

We have one chance to stop  that movement at this point.

The Great Lakes wouldn’t be at risk  if carp were just spreading up the historic Illinois river.

The problem  is, we’ve re-engineered the river, connecting it with Lake Michigan through  a massive system of canals and locks.

Before Scott and his team build any  carp barriers in the real world, they have to test them in the lab.

How much did it cost to build the infrastructure?

This particular project has about an $800 million  price tag, right now.

It's a tall order, but the investment right now is the least costly it’s ever  gonna be.

It’s only gonna get bigger from here on.

While some might call the consequences  ‘unforeseen,’ they were predictable.

So is what will happen if carp  overwhelm the Great Lakes.

In fact, the invasion by another  species is already underway.

In the 1980s, the discovery of zebra mussels in  the Great Lakes Region sparked an ecological red alert.

Similar to the invasive carp, these  unassuming mussels rapidly established their dominance, outpacing native species in  their ability to mature and reproduce.

As the zebra mussels encroach  upon critical infrastructure,   they serve as a stark reminder of the far-reaching  consequences that invasive species can have.

If we’ve learned anything from the zebra mussels, it’s that we have to put all our boots on the  ground to prevent another disastrous outcome.

Some of these battles involve familiar players, like the Army Corps of Engineers.

And other  times, the battlefield looks a little different.

What do you do for a living?

I am a professor at Princeton.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

How’d they trick you into doing this?

This is the Redneck Fishing Competition.

An event that’s quintessentially American, centered around a fish that’s… definitely not.

We’re official.

We’re in it… in it to win it!

My guide is Lance Gregerson, a local fisherman.

And we’re off!

Off like a herd of turtles.

Do you consider yourself a redneck?

Hell yeah!

You proud to be a redneck?

Yeah!

The goal here is simple: catch as  many carp as possible in mid-air.

Get 'em?

Ha ha!

Good shot.

Hell of a good time!

But catching carp…that’s just the beginning.

To make a dent in the population, there has to be a market for it.

And right now, people  are working hard to cook that market up.

The new name for Asian Carp is Copi.

That’s C-O-P-I.

It’s short for copious,   which is exactly what this fish is.

Copi burgers, copi sliders, copi fajitas,  copi tacos.

And even copi po’ boys.

To test the waters, Illinois  is cooking up carp - I mean “copi” - for one population that’s  always hungry: college students.

You should do the hard part, I don’t want to  show you up on TV, so you do the hard part.

Even the hard part I have  a hard time with too, so.

This is Chef Soowha Yu.

He’s got a green  thumb and he’s a magician in the kitchen, transforming carp into something folks  here on campus actually like to eat.

I’ll show you how to filet this one.

Okay.

So, you’ve got to be careful, there’s some bones right here.

It’s really heavy  bones right here you gotta - Okay, so you’re working around the bone Oops sorry.

Oh yeah, that’s a thick bone, geez.

There’s a really hard bone right  there.

Then you follow the bone and then you’re gonna hear  this one, two - that’s bone.

Chef Yu really knows his way around those bones.

There you go.

Oh wow.

I’ve been hearing people  talk about how bony the fish is.

Chef Yu has been busy for over half a decade  finding tasty ways to serve this fish.

This is a fried copi.

A little savory and  salty.

And there’s bone there.

Just make sure - Okay.

Oh, it smells delicious.

I’m on a diet, so I had a smaller piece.

Okay.

Dig in.

Let’s see what we got here.

So make sure you don’t see any bones on it.

Oh, that's good.

It's succulent.

Okay, definitely got to make your way  around the bones though.

I see.

See, normally the Asian, what we do  is eat the whole fish in the mouth.

Okay.

And you just move around.

And then you work through it.

Like this.

Okay.

You can’t be uppity with somebody  pulling bones out of your mouth.

Yeah.

Carp have been a staple of East  Asian cuisine for centuries, and I can taste why.

It’s hard to  believe Americans haven’t embraced this fish and that little bit of  extra work it takes to enjoy it.

We're in the Midwest.

We're meat  and potato guys.

But now we have   a lot of fish out there, so we have to eat it up.

Is picking bones out a little  more work?

Sure.

But listen, it’s good fish, and I’m saying that as a dude  who literally got smacked in the face by one.

So give carp – sorry, copi – a try,  at least once.

Because a funny, not-so-funny thing happened when we  were putting this video together… New evidence pointing to a possible copi  invasion was found in the Great Lakes.

One thing’s clear.

The battles  ahead will be fought in labs, on the river, and at the dinner table.

Maybe, instead of vilifying the species  that succeed where they don’t belong, we should take a closer look at why they’re there in the first place.

And how our  species is handling the fallout.

Thanks for watching.

If you want more Human Footprint, you can tune in to the full length-series on the PBS app or on your local PBS station.