Box nets can be used for full-scale, selective carp removal during summer and fall. This relatively new strategy exploits the fact that carp can be trained to form large feeding aggregations using bait. Further, the bait can be selected to attract only carp and not the native fish, which allows for nearly 100% selective removal of carp without harming native fish. Passive Integrated Tags and antennas are used to assess exactly how many carp aggregate at the bait and when, so that removal can be optimized.

A great advantage of box nets is that citizens and lake residents can take an active role in carp removal. Their role is to bait the sites daily and monitor the results. Once the carp are trained to aggregate at the bait, we remove them using box nets of our own design. These nets are relatively small and can be easily installed in lakes with uneven bottoms or physical obstacles on the bottom. See photos and videos below.

Our nets have remote sensing systems to track carp presence at the bait in real time and are semi-automated (can be run by small crews), which reduces cost and increases catch.