Should we risk the introduction of a virus not yet seen here to wipe out Carp? given the recent news Prawn white spot may have already killed forever our once booming industry, and the fear deliberately miss labeled prawns infected have been sold and used as bait is this a good idea?cane toad and prickly pear come to mind dare we risk it?

Years of work has already been done to check the virus doesn't affect other species. The only remaining contentious issue is whether dead carp would be a bigger danger to the river ecosystem than live ones. I very much doubt they would, as I think they'd get eaten by other fish and birds. But hypothetically if they didn't and the job of removing them was left to bacteria, it would cause oxygen levels in the river to plummet, endangering its other inhabitants.

I have watched the issue develop and am unsure dead carp is even near the issue, we have a very good reputation for being free of many illnesses and some country's are trying to clear their country of this one, right now Japan and other country's are holding back on importing our live eel exports and yes this carp is exported too,in NSW at least we have fishing licences, just maybe some of the many grants it funds could be given as prize money in most carp caught comps? the carp could be turned in to animal food, or like an existing industry used for garden fertilizer

Dear Belly,

According to the link that I've given below - carp
have established themselves throughout the entire
Murray-Darling Basin and they now make up 90% of the
fish biomass in parts of the Basin. We're told that
although it can't be proven that they contribute to
the degradation of our rivers - their dominance must
certainly contribute to the problem.

The link re-assures us that all safety precautions
will be taken with the introduction of the virus to
ensure that other species (including humans) will not
be put at risk. However, I'm not sure that getting rid
of the dead fish won't present a problem. Still, I'm not
sure that doing nothing is a plausible choice.
Here's the link:

http://www.pestsmart.org.au/carp-herpes-faq/

"The link re-assures us that all safety precautions
will be taken with the introduction of the virus to
ensure that other species (including humans) will not
be put at risk"

and if they're wrong?

//"The link re-assures us that all safety precautions
will be taken with the introduction of the virus to
ensure that other species (including humans) will not
be put at risk"

and if they're wrong?//

Don't worry about it mate, you probably already have herpes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4VcOQzQm0