The Carp are Spawning

Yesterday I mentioned that the turtles were laying their eggs late this year Turtles Are Finally Laying Their Eggs.  Something else that is really late this year is the spawning of the carp.  When we first moved here, we couldn't imagine what was going on.  One morning, late in April, the marsh was bubbling and churning.  As we looked closer we could see big fish.  Being city folk, we had to ask.  The locals told us that it was the carp coming into the shallow marshy areas to spawn.  The females can release a half a million eggs.  When they are finished they leave and the eggs stick to vegetation and gravel on the bottom of the pond.  It doesn't take long for them to hatch and soon the pond is filled with little fish.  These little fish provide food for other fish, frogs and herons.  Thank goodness some get eaten because the carp population in the rivers and lakes are very large as it is.  Sometimes we have boaters with specially equipped boats come into our pond.  They use a bow and arrow system to fish for the carp.  I guess some people smoke the fish and eat them.  No thanks, I could never knowingly eat that kind of scavenger fish.  I don't know why I never took a photo of the boat.  Lord knows, I take pictures of everything else.

The bubbling in the center of the photo is the carp spawning.