Fishing for a carp solution

HAVANA — A novel rendering process that reportedly doesn’t produce waste water or foul odors could be one approach in helping to control the Asian carp population in the Illinois River.

At least that’s what Heartland Processing is banking on.

“It’s much more energy efficient than the 4,000-year-old rendering process. It’s neighbor friendly and environmentally friendly,” said Dr. John Holden, a Rockford reproductive endocrinologist and environmentalist who heads Heartland Processing.

The company plans to have a pilot plant operational in Havana on April 1.

“The whole fish is put in, steamed off and then the fish meal and fish oil” are separated, Holden said.

More specifically, the equipment developed by Auburn University will heat the fish until excess water turns to steam. What remains

would then be pressed. A proposal by the company says about 36 percent of the fish’s weight would result in fish meal and 4 percent in the rich fish oil Omega-3.

Holden said the fish meal will be marketed to animal feed producers, while the Omega-3 oil will be sold to pharmaceutical interests.

The process is something Auburn University developed to dispose of catfish offal.

“The catfish offals were being put in landfills where it rots, pollutes the ground water ... to their credit they figured out there had to be a better mousetrap to render this stuff,” Holden said.

“I contacted them and asked if you could throw a whole fish into it,” he said.

In 2007, Holden’s son and some of his friends pulled up at the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath - an event where fishermen compete to get the most and biggest of the jumping Asian carp.

“They showed up with a U-Haul, a couple barrels, got some ice from the tavern there and they got a bunch of fish,” Holden said.

They then drove 13 hours to Auburn, Ala., “pitched (the Asian carp) into the machine and the product that came out was sent to a lab in New Jersey.

“We were looking for heavy metals, (pollutants), etc., things that would downgrade the quality,” Holden said. “The stuff that came out was pristine. It’s worth its weight in gold.”

Holden signed a contract with the Auburn folks to build five plants in the next five years.

“The plants will be in the Mississippi River basin, and always in economically depressed areas with the greatest fish populations,” he said.

Initially, about 12 people will be employed at the Havana pilot site, a 4,000-square-foot former warehouse on the city’s north side that the company purchased for $150,000.

The building is located in a TIF zone, but Holden said that’s as much assistance as his group has received.

“I’m not interested in taking government money or taking handouts. I just care about myself and my investors,” he said. “We’re environmentalists, and that’s what motivates us. The fact it’ll be profitable, that’s good for the community.”

Cliff Banks of Spring Valley, a trustee of the Spring Valley Walleye Club, is hopeful one of the five plants will be built in his town.

He’s been working for more than a year to do something about the Asian carp population and has met with Holden about plans for a possible plant in Spring Valley.

“The Asian carp is depleting a lot of our game fish and other fish in the river because of the amount of algae and small fish they eat,” he said. “Asian carp is overrunning the river systems - not just in Illinois. It’s just a constant battle with these fish.”

The most recent figures from January 2008 indicate a conservative estimate of 18,260 pounds of Asian carp per mile in the 80-mile stretch just between Peoria and Beardstown, according to the Illinois River Biological Station and Illinois Natural History Survey.

“It’s something that has to get stopped,” Banks said. “It’s a problem that has to get taken care of or it’s going to be out of control.”

Holden said that’s what motivated himself and his friends.

“There are people who talk the talk and walk the walk,” he said. “This is something my friends and I decided to do. There’s been a whole lot of, hand wrangling, but it came down to who is going to do it.”

Beyond that, Holden will be putting money in the pockets of those who need it.

“While the Havana plant will employ about a dozen people, the bigger plants will have three, four times that - and that’s just people processing the product,” he said. “We’re going to need a lot of fishermen to supply us with a great amount of fish.”