Aerial view of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Kentucky Lake is on the left. The canal connecting Lake Barkley to Kentucky Lake is visible at left-center.
Kentucky Lake is a major navigablereservoir along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was created in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority's impounding of the Tennessee River via Kentucky Dam for flood control and hydroelectric power.[2] The 160,309-acre (649 km2) lake is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the United States east of the Mississippi River, with 2,064 miles (3,322 km) of shoreline. Kentucky Lake has a flood storage capacity of 4,008,000 acre⋅ft (4.944 km3), more than 2.5 times the next largest lake in the TVA system.
Asian carp are a type of invasive species that have started to accumulate in the waterways throughout Kentucky. They pose a major threat to the environmental stability of the lake because of their competition with native fish species. Bigheaded carp were first reported in Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake in 2002. Their numbers have since increased greatly; they now can be found throughout both lakes and are exhibiting extremely fast growth.[4] Some restaurants in Kentucky and across the country have added carp to their menus, noting its clean taste, white meat, low mercury content, and affordable cost.[5]
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