Here is another article about it with a little more information. Here are a few quotes:

http://www.kyforward.com/art-landers...ie-off-in-u-s/


The worst of a fish kill that has claimed upward of a half-million Asian carp in the Cumberland River below Lake Barkley dam is believed to be over.

This past Friday, fisheries biologists with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources returned to the area as the focus shifted to learning what might have caused the considerable die-off of invasive silver carp.


“Anglers were seeing dead fish a week ago, some two weeks ago, which is very typical of a fish kill caused by some type of viral pathogen,” said Paul Rister, western fisheries district biologist with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “It’s kind of a bell-shaped curve. You start seeing a few die, and a few more die, and then you reach the peak of the massive die-off. I think we’re on that downhill side now.”

After conferring with Asian carp researchers from around the country, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Director Ron Brooks said the belief among experts is that the fish kill found below Barkley Dam to the Cumberland River’s confluence with the Ohio River is the largest ever involving Asian carp in the United States.


Silver carp, which are not native to the United States, appear to be the only fish affected. To help move the mass of fish downriver, the U.S. Corps of Engineers on Thursday opened three gates at Barkley Dam to flush dead fish downstream.

“I don’t think people have to worry about those pathogens affecting native species,” Brooks said. “That’s probably the best news of all.”....

He is hopeful researchers find something from this fish kill that leads to the eventual eradication of Asian carp. Silver carp are plankton feeders and threaten the well-being of native fish and mussels by over-harvesting that vital source of nutrition.

“It’s comforting to know there’s something out there that might take these things out before they just devastate everything,” Brooks said. “Right now we just don’t have it.”