SPRINGFIELD - Asian carp could someday be on the menu at Illinois prisons.

As a state lawmaker looks for possible uses for the nuisance fish, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said Tuesday that officials are open to serving Asian carp to inmates.

"We are definitely interested in looking at the feasibility of this idea," said IDOC spokesman Derek Schnapp.

The department would first review whether it could afford to buy the processed Asian carp, which are a non-native species that are flourishing in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The department also would consider creating a new prison industry around processing carp.

"If it means more jobs for inmates to do, we would look at it," Schnapp said.

State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, wants the state to spend $750,000 to help Schafer Fisheries, located along the Mississippi in Thomson, to purchase equipment for making Asian carp patties.

"Let's take this foreign problem and turn it into a home grown solution," said Jacobs, who has discussed his proposal with prison officials.

Mike Schafer, president of the Illinois-based company, described Asian carp as a white meat fish with good, nutritional value that he purchases for 14 cents a pound. Other carp species bring in about 10 cents per pound, he said.

The Asian carp is over-fished in China, Schafer said, who is planning a trip to that country to see if it is possible to export fish caught in the United States.

Schafer said his company sells about two million pounds of the fish annually, mostly to Asian communities across the country.

Asian carp also pose an environmental problem because they gobble up food, starving out other fish, said Chad Pregracke, director of Living Lands and Waters.

"Commercial fishermen are one of the only real predators that keep the numbers down and keep the size of these things down," said Pregracke about the fish that is some cases can grow to be more than 100 pounds.

State and federal officials have spent $9.1 million to erect an underwater electrical barrier to keep Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes.

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Asian carp were introduced into the United States by catfish farmers in the 1970s. The farmers used the fish to eat algae in their ponds. Flooding in the 1990s allowed the carp to escape.

Asian carp, which are attracted to boat motors, tend to jump out of the water striking people causing injury, Pregracke said.

matt.adrian@lee.net

(217) 789-0865