A postdoctoral fellow at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale is studying how to make U.S. wild-caught Asian carp freshly available to consumers in Asia.
The main goal is to figure out how to ship what's considered an invasive species in the American Midwest to China where it is a delicacy. The trick is to ship whole bodies of the fish while keeping them fresh. Asian consumers are used to buying fresh fish at open markets.
The (Alton) Telegraph reports they also are looking at the costs of exporting the fish.
Postdoctoral fellow Marybeth Brey is with the university's Center for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences. Brey says export costs are making shipping the fish prohibitive. She says this needs to be communicated to both U.S. and the Chinese governments.
