Australia’s National Carp Control Plan is investigating whether a strain of the herpes virus could reduce the carp population in Australian waterways.
While Former Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce has described carp as the “rabbits of our waterways”, critics to the plan suggest introducing the virus will harm international business relationships.
Victorian commercial fisherman John Ingram sells carp for international markets, and said that his business had been stalled following the suggestion that herpes could be introduced to carp populations.