Invasive fish are taking over Kentucky lakes. Are underwater speakers the answer?

There is an Asian carp problem in two Western Kentucky lakes, and officials have begun using a new method to get rid of them, according to media reports.

Officials began testing a Chinese method this week that incorporates netting, underwater speakers and electronic equipment at Kentucky and Barkley lakes, according to WFPL.

Called the “Modified Unified Method,” officials hope to drive out the carp using “two effective sounds,” WKMS reported.

“One of them, the (United States Geological Survey) figured out several years ago is just an amplified boat motor noise,” Ron Brooks with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources told WKMS. “The other one that they started using is the sound of industrial elevators, when the two doors come together and they make that metallic slamming noise. They figured out if they use that noise and repeat it rapidly, that also does a good job of scaring the fish.”

Other native species will not be affected by the sound, Brooks told WFPL.

As officials move the fish using the speakers, they hope to corral them into a series of underwater nets, WPSD reported.

The method hs proven successful in Missouri and Illinois, where 119 tons of carp were eradicated from Creve Coeur Lake in 2018, Bassmaster.com reported. The method reportedly helped get rid of 85 percent of the Asian Carp population.

Asian carp are known to “lower water quality, which can kill off sensitive organisms,” according to the National Park Service. They out-compete other fish and can push out native species, the park service added.

Kentucky and Barkley lakes “have some of the highest densities of Asian carp” in Kentucky, Jessica Morris, a fisheries biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources told WaterwaysJournal.net.

“Bottom line is we’re trying to get all Asian carp out of these lakes we can, and this kind of system could be very important, another tool,” Brooks told WPSD.

A “bio-acoustic fish fence” was completed last fall at Barkley Lake to keep fish from entering through the Cumberland River. The fence “sends a curtain of bubbles, sound and light from the riverbed to the water service,” according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Last summer, officials had an electrofishing demonstration that showed how many Asian carp congregate below the dam. The demonstration, which sent a shock through water, showed hundreds of fish launching out of the water.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last summer the unified method would be used to remove the invasive species. McConnell said $25 million of federal funding will be used to fight the infestation.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has answered my call to deploy an aggressive strategy to combat these invasive and dangerous species in Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake,” he said in a release. “With coordination among several agencies at all levels, we can help protect Kentucky’s treasured waters, support our boaters and anglers, and bolster Western Kentucky’s $1.2 billion fishing economy.”

Brooks estimates they will “catch a million pounds of Asian Carp in their first attempt,” he told WFPL.