Local anglers are invited to an information session Tuesday night focusing on grass carp.
The session is being hosted by the The Invasive Species Centre, through the Asian Carp Canada program and will be held at the Windsor Sportsmen’s Club on Dougall Avenue.
Rebecca D'Orazio is an aquatic invasive species specialist with the centre and says the group tends to hold these information sessions in high risk areas.
"We're hosting at the Sportsmen’s Club because it's kind of our target audience right, anglers and people that are out on the waters who we want to learn about grass carp and essentially be able to report and identify them if they're out on the water and think that they've seen one," says D'Orazio.
She says grass carp is one of four invasive carp species that is threatening to invade the Great Lakes.
"They have been captured in the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes before," she says. "There's no evidence of an established population but the individual captures makes them an immediate threat as does their reproducing population in tributaries in the Great Lakes on the U.S. side, so they are pretty close by."
D'Orazio says the group is concerned about grass corp.
"They consume a lot of aquatic vegetation," says D'Orazio. "They can eat up to 40% of their body weight a day of aquatic vegetation so big threat to our wetlands which are really important, fish habitat."
The information session begins at 6 p.m.
It will include discussions with experts, presentations and a question and answer period.