Michigan authorities charge Arkansas man with selling grass carp, an invasive Asian species

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Michigan authorities have charged a man with 12 counts of selling live Asian carp in violation of a state law meant to prevent the spread of invasive species.

The state attorney general’s office said Tuesday that 42-year-old David Shane Costner of Harrisburg, Ark., sold two grass carp to undercover investigators with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources last month in Midland.

Officials said Costner was hauling illegal carp around Michigan in a semi-truck and selling them from store parking lots. They said he also was selling legal fish species such as channel catfish, largemouth bass and fathead minnows.

Grass carp are among several carp varieties imported from Asia that have spread in U.S. waterways. The two species considered most likely to invade the Great Lakes are silver and bighead carp.