According to Wikipedia, the silver carp is a freshwater species that originated from north and northeast Asia.

Generally cultivated as a source of food in China, the silver carp was ‘introduced to America in the 1970s to control algae growth in aquaculture and municipal wastewater treatment facilities.’ They escaped captivity and as a highly invasive species spread into the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri rivers.

An unforeseen problem was discovered in the silver carps’ tendency to grow to a size of 18kg, and its ability to leap up to 3m into the air when startled. Nicknamed ‘flying carp’ for this activity, boaters, jet-skiers and fishermen have all encountered problems with the fish on the aforementioned rivers. In 2003 a woman on a jet-ski had her nose broken and a vertebrae cracked after colliding with a silver carp at speed.

More recently, Seth Russell, 15, was getting towed behind a boat on Lake Chicot in Arkansas on an inner tube. A silver carp leaped from the water, striking Russell in the face and knocking him unconscious. ‘The teen has had oral surgery to wire several teeth together and still experiences back pain that doctors attribute to whiplash from the high-speed collision, his mother said.’

It’s quite clear that he’s not the first, nor the last, to encounter the danger of the silver carp.