Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The spread of nuisance aquatic plants (e.g. water hyacinth) has always caused serious problems (e.g. water loss and navigation) in River Nile and canals. Various control methods have been adopted to control water hyacinth in River Nile including mechanical (dredging) and chemical (herbicides) methods. Since 1990, the use of herbicides in the control of aquatic plants in the River Nile and irrigation canals in Egypt has been banned. Since then, the use of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella has been introduced as a biological control agent for aquatic plants. The biological control project is managed by the Channel Maintenance Research Institute (CMRI), (Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) including the production of grass carp fingerlings, releasing of fingerlings and monitoring the impacts of grass carp (non-native) on the ecosystem especially on native species. The photo shows a method of marking using ink method that helps to assess the impacts –if any- of released grass carp.
