Friday June 24, 2022
CBC News —
You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. “Ugh,” you might say. But how about broiled copi, fresh from the Mississippi River?
Here’s the catch: They’re the same thing.
Illinois and partner organizations in the U.S. kicked off a market-tested campaign Wednesday to rechristen as “copi” four species previously known collectively as Asian carp, hoping the new label will make them more attractive to U.S. consumers.
Turning carp into a popular household and restaurant menu item is one way officials hope to rein in a decades-old invasion threatening native fish, mussels and aquatic plants in the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers, as well as the Great Lakes.