Want to shoot fish with arrows to help the environment? This Moses Lake carp tournament is for you

If you want to shoot lots of fish for a good cause, you’re in luck.

Anglers will flock to central Washington on May 21, for the third annual Moses Lake Carp Classic.

The free bowfishing tournament runs from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is open to the public. Participants can register between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. at Connelly Park in Moses Lake.

Ty Swartout, who created the event in 2019, said the tournament has two purposes.

Participants remove thousands of invasive common carp, a Eurasian species that causes significant environmental damage in American waters. The competition also helps educate the public about the harm carp cause, Swartout said.

When carp feed and spawn, they disturb vegetation and sediment at the lake bottom. That disturbance releases sediment, silt and phosphorus into the water and those nutrients can fuel algal blooms.

“They’re horrible for our lakes,” Swartout said.

Carp cause damage in a few other ways, too. For instance, they outcompete…