$13 Million Coming From Great Lakes Fund to Stop Jumping Jumbo Carp
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Jason Lindsey took this amazing picture of a school of Asian carp jumping in an Illinois waterway. Photo courtesy of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Asian carp are fearsome fish so destructive they eat all the food in their habitat.
A thrashing, jumping threat to boaters, the carp has prompted poisoning and millions of dollars of barriers to keep them out of the Great Lakes.
The invasive monster has officials pounding gavels and slapping lawsuits all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But possibly the carp is finally about to be brought under control.
U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, has announced a bipartisan deal to erect a $13 million third electrical weir in the Chicago River to stop the Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes.
Rep. Stupak said the funds will come from the Great Lakes Restoration Fund.
After prompting by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Lt. Gov. John Cherry, Attorney General Mike Cox has filed suit against the State of Illinois and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeking closure of two shipping locks to block the voracious carp.
Known to injure boaters at the sound of a passing motor, Asian carp are voracious filter feeders that can grow to more than 4 feet long, weigh up to 100 pounds. They rapidly dominate a body of water by sucking up the food native fish populations need to survive.
A suit filed by Cox reached the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month but, with the quick Congressional action, now seems unnecessary, observers noted.
"We're still reviewing the specifics of the AG's (Cox's) case, but the Alliance for the Great Lakes applauds Michigan's move to protect the lakes," said Alliance President Joel Brammeier. "Knowing there are carp less than seven miles from Lake Michigan, we have to take every precaution until we know those canals are free from carp and the barrier is not being breached."
Illinois officials defended against the Michigan attorney general's suit, asserting that closure of the ship canal would damage the state's economy and cause the loss of jobs.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said there are ways of keeping the carp out of the Great Lakes without harming the state's economy.
In less than a decade the carp has moved from the Atlantic Ocean up the Mississippi River and has destroyed the fishing resource of that waterway.
The third weir will act as a defensive measure against times of flooding when the invasive carp could be washed over barriers and into the lakes. Two weirs already have been erected, he said.
Some of the destructive fish reportedly have been found in the Chicago River and the Sanitary Canal that leads to the Great Lakes.
"Great Lakes sport fishing is a $4.5 billion industry and we want to do everything we can to assure that it is not endangered," said Stupak, the Menominee Congressman, whose district extends south to a portion of Bay County.
Officials treated about six miles of the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal with a deadly fish poison early this month to prevent invasive Asian carp from breaching an electrical barrier that must be shut down for routine maintenance.
The Alliance joined several other conservation groups in supporting Gov. Granholm's call for legal action to prevent the jumbo-sized jumping carp from entering the Great Lakes.
Granholm and Lt. Gov. Cherry urged Michigan Attorney General Cox calling on him "to vigorously pursue every legal tool" to keep Asian carp out of the lakes, including the closure of navigational locks in Chicago that are the only obstacle standing between the invasive fish and Lake Michigan.
In a separate letter to Cox, the conservation groups stated their support for Granholm's request to "take legal action to close, at least temporarily, all Illinois locks providing access to Lake Michigan until the state of Illinois and federal agencies can demonstrate that Asian carp will not swim into Lake Michigan."
The call for legal action comes nearly two weeks after the Alliance and partner groups asked state and federal authorities to immediately close navigational locks.
The request was in response to new DNA data indicating that the invasive Asian carp had breached an electric fence and were only miles from Lake Michigan.
"Today we can literally slam the door to protect the lakes from the Asian carp. If we don't, our kids and grandkids will never know the lakes as we see them now," said Brammeier of the Alliance. "Invasive species don't come with second chances. It is imperative that state and federal leaders take emergency action to close the locks and protect the Great Lakes."
State and federal agencies applied the plant-based toxin, rotenone, to kill fish -- including Asian carp -- along sections of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and Cal-Sag Channel in preparation for performing maintenance on the electric fence. A host of representatives from federal, regional, state and local agencies today begin removing the dead carp and other fish from the canal, trucking them to a landfill for disposal.
Rotenone is not harmful to people and breaks down rapidly into carbon dioxide and water. An antidote will be added to the water after the treatment to speed the breakdown of the poison.
The notorious carp, specifically silver and bighead carp, can comprise as much as 95 percent of the fish biomass in locations where they now dominate.
The electric barrier is the only protection against carp entering Lake Michigan via the Sanitary & Ship Canal, which is located some 20 miles south of Lake Michigan. DNA evidence from the waters suggests the Asian carp are already very close to the electric barrier in the canal and are also present in the nearby Des Plaines River, I & M canal and Calumet Sag Canal.
The carp may already have breached the barrier, however. On Nov. 20, officials announced that new testing showed the presence of Asian carp DNA in the Calumet River, north of the electric barrier and adjacent to the O?Brien Lock just six miles south of Lake Michigan. If the carp make their way into the Great Lakes, they could devastate the region's fishing and recreation industry and permanently alter how recreational boaters, anglers and tourists use and enjoy the lakes and their many tributaries.
The Alliance last year called for physically separating the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins, a plan that is gaining support as the Asian carp close in on Lake Michigan. The two watersheds are joined by the Sanitary and Ship Canal, engineered more than a century ago to carry Chicago's wastewater away from Lake Michigan. ###
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