Near the outset of her literary history of early modern angling texts, Myra E. Wright asks, ‘Is there such a thing as an English fish?’ On landscapes and waterways that have been so extensively managed and domesticated throughout history, what does it mean to draw a distinction between English fish and ‘naturalized’ fish? Although the last ice age left species of freshwater fish isolated in fragmented pockets of Europe for much of recorded human history, fish are wont to flow without regard for national borders. Perhaps no European species demonstrates this better than the common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Ecologically, they are eager colonizers, gamely adaptable to new habitats. Culturally, carp are perceived disparately in different waters. A prized pond fish here, a dangerous invader there; unfit for the kitchen according to some, a culinary delicacy for others. Frequently reviled in North America as a muddy-tasting bottom-feeder, carp are immensely popular in other countries. In fact, carp are now the most farmed fish in the world.

Common carp are no more indigenous to the British Isles than they are to North America, but they elicit very different responses depending on the continent. Ask a white person in North America what they think of carp and you’re likely to hear phrases like ‘trash fish’ or, especially, with the introduction of Asian carp to North American rivers, ‘invasive species’.