On 16 November 1963, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fish Farming Experimental Station at Stuttgart, Arkansas, became the first institution to import grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) into the United States. This introduction was the result of at least seven years of effort to find an effective biological control for problematic aquatic weeds. The introduction was in keeping with a strong environmental and political mandate of that day to replace the broad use of chemicals with biological controls. For about 10 years, federal and state agencies and university systems strongly promoted introductions, spawning, and nationwide stocking of the grass carp. In 1966, the USFWS laboratory at Stuttgart, Arkansas, was apparently responsible for the first accidental release of grass carp to the environment. By 1972, grass carp were stocked in open water systems, documented in 16 states, and established in the Mississippi River system. All this occurred before the first private-sector commercial produ...