Dear Benjamin, thank you so much for replying to my question about carp in the Los Angeles River. You provided so much information that I am definitely going to share it on the corner. Though I do believe some some readers may object to your plan to kidnap the turtles of Echo Park Lake and re-home them at the river.* Then again, I'm not sure I trust any of the engineering firms that are now competing for the revamp-the-lake project to do any better by the turtles. I hope the river carp have not been over-eaten.
Sincerely Yours,
Chicken Corner

Benjamin wrote:

Dear Chicken Corner: Yes, the carp are good in soup. Carp are considered a trash fish in America, but a delicacy in Europe and Asia. They have a lot of bones, and mushy, bland meat. But, in soup, fine. Are they safe? It turns out carp do hold poison in their little bodies, but mostly in guts.

Oddly enough, carp from the Sierra Nevada are likely to be dangerous, due to a type of mercury poisoning. Mercury somehow leaches from old gold mine tailings, and gets into the clear blue water, and poisons the carp. If you eat more than one a year, you are poisoning yourself, and especially do not eat if pregnant. Jeez, poisoned while fishing a clear mountain stream. As far as I can tell, no one has tested LA River carp. So I eat a few a year. There were very abundant about one year ago, but too many people started to fish, and they are less common now. They are a pretty golden-silvery-bronzey color. The mallards do not migrate, I am fairly sure. There are some Canadian geese on the river, and I wonder about them. Also, some white and mixed-color geese here and there. I have seen great blue heron, many sizes of white heron, and many other birds. Crayfish were very common one year, but not since. I have seen cormorants divebombing the river, and coming up with a carp in their beaks, which they eat. They then triumphantly sun themselves with black wings spread open, while perched on river rocks. I bet the carp do not appreciate that display. I wonder if turtles would add or subtract from the river. Would they eat eggs, reducing population of fish and birds? I wonder if the carp ate all the crayfish eggs. Everything is a wonder. I wonder if big snapping turtles could make a go of it. After all, a croc lived for a couple of years in that cruddy little lake down by the harbor. I think I will try to transplant some Echo Park turtles. If successful, we can graduate to snapping turtles. I am also putting some beehives on top of my factory. There are feral bee colonies here, so I think it will work.

I do know one thing about cormorants: they spread their wings to dry -- a design flaw, perhaps, as they are waterfowl who don't tolerate wet for long. Of course, it's possible they are proud and pleased to be gobbling up the carp.

*(Oh, I just remembered the turtle relocation plan was Chicken Corner's originally.)