An incredible video captured the moment hundreds of Asian carpfish leaped out of a Kentucky lake on Tuesday because they were stunned by the electrical current passed through water while fishing to control their numbers.
Officials from Kentucky’s department of fish and wildlife conducted the experiment on Tuesday at Barkley Dam in Lake Barkley, Kentucky, where a boat applied electrical current through a part of the dam to shock the fish out the water, the Daily Mail reported.
The video showed the boat applying the “shocking” current, causing a fizzing sensation in the water as hundreds of carp jump out of the lake while the three fishermen on board scoop up some of the fish.
The agency launched the program to solve the problem of Asian carp overpopulation. The carp is an invasive species which catfish farmers introduced to the U.S. during the 1970s.
The fish are invasive because they breed at an extremely high rate— a mature female Asian carp produces 1 million eggs per year— and the overpopulation of these fish mean there is less food to go around for other fish in the sea.
The electrical current is not meant to kill the fish but intended to stun the fish long enough so they can be captured or counted.
“It’s just to give folks an idea of how many fish we’re dealing with below the dam. We collect and try to distribute to them to buyers,” Ron Brooks, the department’s fisheries division director, told CNN.
Once the fish are collected, counted, and measured, they are harvested to buyers who make products such as fertilizer, food products meant for humans, and fish bait.
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