Carp Fever! The Introduction of Carp into Territorial Arizona and Its Lasting Legacy

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• Carp Fever!The Introduction of Carp into Territorial Arizona and Its Lasting Legacy
• Michael Bogan (bio)

Michael Bogan

European carp (Cyprinus carpio), a species which is largely viewed as a "trash fish" in modern times, was the first non-native fish to be imported to Arizona.¹ In fact, the Arizona Territory and much of the United States were swept up in a carp fever in the 1880s. Settlers across the country spent the better part of that decade going to great lengths to obtain carp from government and private providers so they could start their own recreational and commercial carp fisheries. Although carp fever was relatively short-lived, its impacts continue to reverberate today in Arizona's imperiled native fish fauna and in the way aquatic ecosystems and species are managed in the state. In this article, I present the surprising, impactful, and at times amusing history of carp in Arizona, including the clamor to import them in the 1880s, a detailed case study of carp fever in Tucson, and the lasting impact of carp fever on the state.

Increasing Demand for Fish in Territorial Arizona

Although non-native fishes were not imported to Arizona until the 1880s, freshwater fishes have always been an important food resource for residents of the region. Native fishes endemic to the Colorado River and its tributaries, including razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) and Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), were managed and sustainably harvested for thousands of years by ancestors of the O'odham, [End Page 425] Cocopah, and Chemehuevi, among other tribes.² However, Anglo colonization of the region in the 1800s led to significant disruptions to the region's rivers and their unique fish fauna, setting the stage for the desire to import new fishes.

At first, Anglo colonists practiced small-scale subsistence and recreational fishing in Arizona. This pattern was regularly documented in territorial newspapers, including this description of fishing for Gila chub (Gila intermedia; described as "speckled trout") in the Santa Cruz River in Tucson in 1877:

There is more or less fishing being done these days along the waters of the Santa Cruz.… We saw a string of fish the other day some of which were a foot long. They are a very palatable fish too, though we don't know their proper name. Perhaps speckled trout.… There is said to be some first-rate fishing spots along the river.³

As Anglo populations grew, and mining and agricultural industries developed, the demand for freshwater fish grew as well. This growth included the large-scale harvest of native fishes in the Colorado River and elsewhere to use as fertilizer in farm fields.⁴ However, large-bodied fishes didn't naturally occur in Arizona's smaller rivers and streams, including the Santa Cruz River in Tucson.⁵ Because of this increased demand, and the uneven natural distribution of larger fishes, Anglo settlers began to look elsewhere for non-native fishes to import to the territory.

Carp Fever and Early Efforts to Import Fish to the Region

Numerous non-native plants and animals arrived with early European colonists to North America, but fish species generally were introduced much later, after transportation technology had improved. In fact, carp were not officially imported to the United States until 1877. At that time, live carp were brought by boat from Europe to federal fish hatcheries in Washington, D.C.⁶ However, carp fever had already begun several years earlier when private importers in California went to Germany in 1872 to bring fish back and start a carp farm in that state. The first government deliveries of carp outside of the East Coast began in 1880 with shipments to midwestern states and territories. At that time, the U.S. Fish Commission distributed carp to "prominent citizens" only, as [End Page 426] supplies were too limited to "waste" highly valuable fish by "experimenting and putting them in rivers."⁷

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European carp (Cyprinus carpio). Illustrated by Mica Stahl.

In Arizona, carp fever began almost immediately after the fish became available in North America. In fact, territorial newspapers seem...