Invasive carp point of contactwisconsin does not yet have dedicated staff whose job duties include work on invasive carp

A dedicated staff person to serve as point of contact for on invasive carp coordination and activities would start to build capacity in wisconsin enhancing wdnrs capacity to participate in planning coordination and outreach as well as control and monitoring activities. The funding from this proposal would support the creation of this invasive carp position at wdnr. This position will be a point of contact for new reports of invasive carp and work in coordinating any efforts with aquatic invasive species and fish management staff. They will coordinate communications for these reports. They will also be responsible for entering any data into wisconsin databases of invasive carp reports and verifications. This position will participate in all meetings regarding invasive carp. The focus of involvement will include all meetings for invasive carp in the mississippi river basin. They will participate as a comember of the mississippi river basin panel for wisconsin. They will also SIT on meetings related to brandon road and the icrcc to stay informed of invasive carp work and progress being made in the great lakes. This position will work closely with minnesota and the other UMR states in collaborations of invasive carp control activities performed on the mississippi river. They will provide technical guidance and participate in control activities performed by minnesota. This person will also participate on any review of new technologies regarding invasive carp. This position will work closely with minnesota in monitoring invasive carp. They will learn techniques and equipment needed for this activity by participating and coordinating with minnesota in monitoring for invasive carp.with this position being the main point of contact for invasive carp they will lead the education and outreach efforts for the mississippi river basin and statewide.invasive carp expanded arrayinvasive carp are cryptic species that pose a challenge for capture in low density populations. However invasive carp exhibit seasonal movement patterns that can be exploited. Acoustic telemetry is a key monitoring tool for detecting these patterns. Tagging and tracking have been instrumental in several recent captures of invasive carp in minnesota wisconsin border waters. Interagency collaboration between mndnr wdnr USFWS and USGS on tagging tracking and fishing efforts is producing results as evidenced by the recent capture of over 400 invasive carp in pool 6. Several dozen tagged invasive carp were last detected in pools 5A 12. This is the most tagged invasive carp ever located in these pools. Efforts to increase the number of tagged invasive carp in the upper mississippi river basin are planned to continue in the coming years. The presence of these tagged invasive carp presents an opportunity to learn more about seasonal migrations and to identify locations where invasive carp congregate that could be exploited for capture and additional tagging or removal. The current receiver array has limited coverage and can only be used to detect movement between pools. The array cannot detect the finer scale movements that are critical to informing the location for response actions. In order to maximize the utility of the invasive carp being tagged by state and federal agencies additional receivers are needed. The requested funds will be used to purchase install and maintain up to 60 additional stationary acoustic telemetry receivers in pools 5A 12. They will also fund data management and analysis of the detection data from the array. Funds will cover equipment supplies staff time and travel. This project directly relates to UMR subbasin objectives by continuing to monitor the UMR for changes in invasive carp populations implementing tools that improve our ability to detect invasive carp and enabling removal to control and contain invasive carp.