Fishing businesses in the Coorong region of South Australia are reporting an increasing demand for carp as a "premium" food product, but fear the looming herpes virus release could kill the industry before it even takes off.

Key points: A SA parliamentary committee has recommended the State Government investigate a 'carp mining' industry

A SA parliamentary committee has recommended the State Government investigate a 'carp mining' industry Seafood businesses say carp is becoming a 'niche product' and is in demand

Seafood businesses say carp is becoming a 'niche product' and is in demand Fishing businesses want a carp industry to be investigated further before herpes virus is released

Instead, the industry wants the State Government to investigate 'carp mining', or commercially harvesting carp, as a way to manage the overabundant pest species.

The driving force behind the proposal is the Southern Fishermen's Association (SFA), which represents South Australia's Lower Lakes and Coorong region at the mouth of the Murray River.

Some fishermen along the Murray already commercially harvest the fish, but SFA president Garry Hera-Singh said growing the carp mining industry would be a better way to reduce the overabundant species than using the much-debated herpes virus.

A fishing business says premium restaurants are increasingly serving up carp. ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

He said the fishery already sold between 400 and 600 tonnes of carp to the rock lobster industry to be used as bait, but there was potential to grow human consumption and export markets.

"The big problem is that to send hundreds of thousands of tonnes overseas there is quite a bit of infrastructure needed — I am talking about big freezers, trucks, big containers and employing people as well," he said.

"There's a lot of homework to be done … but I think it is a far cheaper and far safer option than what's being proposed with the virus."

A South Australian parliamentary committee has backed the proposal and recommended that the State Government investigate further.

But if the market is built, will the customers come?

Seafood business owners Tracy and Glen Hill, based in Meningie, have seen demand for carp "slowly creeping up" over the past 10 years.

The Coorong fishing industry started catching carp in large numbers during the Millennium Drought, when the community feared dry conditions could lead to a fish kill event.

Fancy some fried carp? ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

During that time some seafood businesses researched how to prepare carp for human consumption, to try to get a better return than selling the extra fish into the usual rock lobster bait market.

The Hills focused on marketing their carp as a premium product, and said it had now become a "niche product" increasingly in demand from restaurants.

"We're turning fish worth nothing into $20 a kilo," Mr Hill said.

They currently supply businesses throughout Meningie and Adelaide, but said there was demand on the export market too.

Ms Hill said their business had received enquiries for huge orders from overseas — some as big as 200,000 tonnes — but a lack of infrastructure made it near-impossible to facilitate such huge orders.

"The problem is most markets don't want to look at starting anything up with this virus hanging over their heads," she said.

"They're not going to invest major resources, money or infrastructure into a project that could be cancelled within three to five years because of a virus in the river system."

Tracy Hill says while people are reluctant to try carp, in her experience, most will love it. ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

Interest in carp increasing due to high public profile

The Federal Government set up the National Carp Control Plan (NCCP) in late 2016 to assess the feasibility of releasing a carp herpes virus to control the pest.

According to the NCCP, a report compiling extensive research will be presented to the Government in December.

The NCCP is investigating releasing the carp herpes virus into the river to control the pest. ( ABC Rural )

Ms Hill said although she and her husband opposed the carp herpes virus release, the public discussion had had an unexpected side effect: raising the fish's profile.

"One of the benefits of it becoming a political and environmental issue on this scale is that it has created a lot of interest and there are people who are willing to try it," she said.

"That's why we need to get out there and capitalise on that and get people to try it.

"Ninety-five per cent of people who try it go, 'This is fantastic, and we love it'."

Coorong fishers started targeting carp to try to prevent a fish kill during the last drought. ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

Mr Hill, who has been a fisherman for about 30 years, said there was once "no way" he would have considered carp a "great fish" — but in recent years he had figured out how to get around its notorious muddy taste.

"If you don't stress fish you have no muddy taste," he said.

"These fish are the most eaten and harvested fish in the world … something tells me we're missing something here."

Fishing carp is not a 'silver bullet'

According to Mr Hera-Singh, the carp mining solution is only part of effective pest management.

"We also need to change the habitat and make it more conducive to our native fish," he said.

"We have dammed [the river] and we have weir[s] and locks, so we have created all these series of pools of still water, which are just perfect habitat for carp.

"Native fish are looking for movement of water, whereas carp are looking for the complete opposite. So, carp mining or commercial harvesting of carp is only part of the solution."

Faith Coleman is concerned about the impact the herpes virus could have on the Coorong. ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

Estuarine ecologist Faith Coleman said introducing the carp herpes virus would make carp harvesting unviable, and would instead leave the industry with dead fish to clean up when all was done.

"When you [kill] that number of animals, the bodies have to go somewhere … and in the Murray, that somewhere is the Coorong," she said.

Glen Hill has been fishing in the Coorong for about 30 years. ( ABC News: Leonie Thorne )

The NCCP coordinator Jamie Allnut said research into carp harvesting had been completed and showed it could not be a single solution to the issue.

"It would be very hard to address the carp problem, which is really wide scale, given the characteristics of carp to bounce back quickly," he said.

"So it would be really hard to constantly and manually remove carp from our systems [and] have any impact on the carp population."