Mississippi River fishes collected by a suite of entanglement and entrapment gears; 2020-2023

Black Carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) were imported to the United States for use as a biological control in aquaculture and have since escaped with reproducing populations in the wild. Habitat use and capture of this species has not been well documented in the wild, thus questions about catchability by gears and habitats are present. This dataset represents sampling effort to capture Black Carp with common large-river gears. Data represent Black Carp catch and the co-occurring catch of Mississippi River fish sampled by the described gears from the lowest reach of the Missouri River and Mississippi rivers near their confluence. Gears consisted of trammel nets, gill nets, and predominately hoop nets fished among mainstem habitats of an open river segment from 2020-2023.