Pet Micro-chipping Technology In Carp!

Owners of loved and valuable pets sometimes have a microchip implanted to help recover them if they are lost or stolen. The same technology is now being used to help the Anoka Conservation District remove destructive carp from lakes.

We recently added microchip PIT tags to 187 carp in Typo Lake (Linwood Township). Those carp are now telling us when and proportionately how many carp are visiting baiting stations in the lake. An underwater sensor detects the carp when they are near the bait. A floating, solar-powered control unit uploads that data to the internet. This allows us to spring the nets around the bait at times that are likely to catch the most carp.

Graph: Number of PIT tagged carp visiting baited net stations over 7 days. Note the increase over time and the peak just after midnight. 

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Martin Lake Receives Carp Management Boost from Grants

In August and September the Anoka Conservation District is leading carp removal projects at Martin Lake. The lake, and others in the same chain that are being similarly managed, have high carp populations that affect water quality, habitat and the fishery. Six funding sources have combined to launch the work in 2020.

In the last two years, grants were used to remove over 5,000 carp from Martin Lake and a similar amount in Typo Lake. That is half-way to the goal set in a management study conducted by Dr. Przemek Bajer of Carp Solutions, LLC and the ACD. That work was done with grants in 2018-2019 that are now spent.

We're excited to be able to bring this management to conclusion with new funding sources in 2020-2022. Funding for the chain of lakes includes:

  • $148,000 Clean Water, Land and Legacy grant from the MN Board of Water and Soil Resources.
  • $28,500 from the Sunrise River Watershed Management Organization.
  • $5,000 from the Linwood Lake Improvement Association.
  • $9,750 from the Martin Lakers Association, donated by residents to their Water Quality Fund.
  • $5,000 Anoka County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention grant to the Martin Lakers Association.
  • Labor contributed by Linwood Township and the Anoka Conservation District.

To request to be on an email list for regular project updates, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Updates are also periodically posted to the ACD website here: Carp Harvests

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