LAKE CARMEL — One thousand-two hundred sterile grass carp from Arkansas had a rude awakening in Putnam County.

On the coldest morning of the autumn season to date, the fish were gingerly placed into Lake Carmel to control unwanted aquatic weed growth.

Kent Supervisor Kathy Doherty wished the fish well Wednesday by giving one of them a peck on its mouth before she put the fish in the chilly waters.

In 1999, more than 1,500 carp were purchased for the lake cleanup project which Doherty said “really worked". The fish eat their weight in vegetation daily and become rather large. Over the years, Lake Carmel became pristine but the life span for this fish is only eight to 10 years and the old timers have died off. "We decided to purchase a new generation of carp at a cost of $7.14 a piece and we anticipate the lake which has become overgrown with vegetation will become clean again.”

Grass carp prefer succulent young plants and according to the Warnell School of Forest Resources in Georgia carp prefer musk-grass, duckweeds, pondweeds, coontail, water primrose, eel grass, cattail, milfoil and water hyacinth, varieties of which are found in the lake.

When the fish were placed into the water at 7:45 a.m. with the air temperature at 25 degrees, the carp appeared to be lethargic. A spokeswoman for the Warnell School told the Putnam Courier in a telephone interview, “Fish are cold-blooded animals whose metabolism is influenced by water temperature. Grass carp feeding is greatest when water temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees. Carp mortality is less likely when water temperatures are cooler therefore fish stocked in late autumn or early spring are more likely to survive.”