You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. Ugh, you might say. But how about broiled copi, fresh from the Mississippi River?
Here’s the catch: They’re the same thing.
Illinois and partner organizations kicked off a market-tested campaign Wednesday to rechristen as “copi” four species previously known collectively as Asian carp, hoping the new label will make them more attractive to U.S. consumers.
Turning carp into a popular household and restaurant menu item is one way officials hope to rein in a decades-old invasion threatening native fish, mussels and aquatic plants in the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers, as well as the Great Lakes.
“The ‘carp’ name is so harsh that people won’t even try it,” said Kevin Irons, assistant fisheries chief with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. “But it’s healthy, clean and it really tastes pretty darn good.”
The federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is funding the five-year, $600,000 project to rebrand the carp and make them widely available. More than two dozen distributors, processors, restaurants and retailers have signed on. Most are in Illinois, but some deliver to multiple states or nationwide.
“This could be a tremendous breakthrough,” said John Goss, who led the Obama administration’s effort to halt the carp invasion and worked on the renaming project. “The next couple of years are very critical for building confidence and acceptance.”
Span, a Chicago communications design company, came up with “copi.” It’s an abbreviated wordplay on “copious” — a reference to the booming populations of bighead, silver, grass and black carp in the U.S. heartland.
Imported from Asia in the 1960s-70s to gobble algae from Deep South sewage lagoons and fish farms, they escaped into the Mississippi River. They’ve infested most of the river and many tributaries, crowding out native species like bass and crappie.
Regulators have spent more than $600 million to keep them from the Great Lakes and waters such as Lake Barkley on the Kentucky-Tennessee line. Strategies include placing electric barriers at choke points and hiring crews to harvest the fish. Other technologies — underwater noisemakers, air bubble curtains — are in the works.
The fish’s targeted removal has so far kept them from populating Lake Michigan. The population south of Joliet’s Brandon Road Lock and Dam has dropped nearly 90%, Irons said. Producers currently grind the caught fish into products like animal feed, dog treats and fertilizer, he said.
It would help if more people ate the critters. Officials estimate up to 50 million pounds (22.7 million kilograms) could be netted annually in the Illinois River, a link between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. Even more are available between the Midwest and the Gulf Coast. Authorities are betting consumer demand for copi as food will create an economy that more rigorously rips the fish out of the water.
“Government subsidies alone will not end this war,” Goss said. “Private-sector, market-driven demand for copi could be our best hope.”
In the U.S., carp are known primarily as muddy-tasting bottom feeders. But the four targeted species live higher in the water column, feeding on algae, wetland plants and — in the case of black carp — mussels and snails. They’re high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in mercury and other contaminants, Irons said.
“It has a nice, mild flavor … a pleasant surprise that should help fix its reputation,” said Brian Jupiter, a Chicago chef who plans to offer a copi po’boy sandwich at his Ina Mae Tavern. The fish is adaptable to a variety of cuisines including Cajun, Asian and Latin, he said.
Yet it could be a hard sell, particularly because the fish’s notorious boniness makes it challenging to produce the fillets many diners expect, Jupiter added. Some of the best recipes may use chopped or ground copi, he said.
The fish should be competitively priced and affordable in the Chicago region, Irons said. And fish-eaters with ethical concerns about overfishing and ecological sustainability might really love it: The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists the fish as a “good alternative” to eat in part because curbing the carp’s spread helps the environment.
“You don’t invent a new protein source every day,” Irons said.
Span researchers considered a number of names — “butterfin” among them — before settling on “copi,” Irons said. It sounded catchy, a tad exotic, even fun, he said.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has tried in the past to rinse away the fish’s reputation as a dirty kitchen-reject. They brought in out-of-state chefs to cook up free samples and challenged Chicago restaurants to put the fish on their menus for free. None of the efforts, which used the old name, stuck.
“‘Carp’ was a four-letter elephant in the room,” Irons said.
Span conducted surveys, interviews and focus group meetings involving more than 350 Illinois residents, design principal Nick Adam said.
The next step: Seeking approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration, which says “coined or fanciful” fish labels can be used if they’re not misleading or confusing. A familiar example is “slimehead,” which became a hit with consumers after its market moniker was switched to “orange roughy.”
Illinois also plans to register the “copi” trademark, enabling industry groups to develop quality control procedures, Irons said.
Other regulatory agencies and scientific groups have their own policies and might not go along with the switch.
The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and the American Fisheries Society have a committee that lists fish titles, including scientific names in Latin and long-accepted common names. The panel never adopted “Asian carp” as an umbrella term for the four invasive species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to stick with “invasive carp” and the four individual names, as its focus is on managing and controlling their spread, said Charlie Wooley, the agency’s Midwest director. The Invasive Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, which involves numerous federal, state, local and Canadian provincial agencies, will do likewise.
They dropped “Asian carp” last year because of concern about anti-Asian bigotry.
Irons said proof the consumers are eating the fish while it’s labeled “copi” in Illinois will be important to getting the name changed across America. He just wants people to give it a try. After all, he said, it pairs well with all spices.
“A pound of this, put it in your pan with a little bit of olive oil and some seasoning,” he said.
Chicagoans who want to give copi a try are in luck: Eight restaurants in the area are serving the fish, which is also being sold at several fish markets, distributors and processors. The spots offering copi can be found at choosecopi.com.
Chicago Tribune’s Jake Sheridan contributed to this report.