Last week, the White House released its own $78.5 million Asian carp deterrence plan. Environmentalists, nervous that an invasion will wreak havoc on the region's ecosystem, are expressing disappointment with the Obama administration's lack of a timeline or cohesive plan.
The reversal of the Chicago River is one of the most iconic and important engineering feats in Illinois history. For decades, residents of the city dumped their personal and industrial sewage into the river, which flowed directly into Lake Michigan, the area's primary source of drinking water. By building the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900 -- the only shipping link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system -- and forcing wastewater away from the lake using a series of navigation locks, civil engineers were able to protect the population from waterborne disease and establish Chicago as a national shipping hub.
But the river reversal had one unintended consequence: By connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River basin, engineers created what Joel Brammeier of the Alliance for the Great Lakes calls an "aquatic superhighway."
Enter the Asian carp
A native of China, four species of asian carp (whose weight can exceed 100 pounds) were originally imported to America by southern catfish farmers in the 1970s to eat pond algae. After floods decade ago caused some ponds in Arkansas to overflow, the fish escaped and have slowly curled their way up the Mississippi, leaping over and slipping through man-made barriers. Over time, they even made their way into the last tributaries connecting the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Michigan.
If the carp infest the lake, they will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the region's ecosystem. By eating massive amounts of plankton and algae, the fish would essentially knock out the lowest species in the water's food-chain, crowding out smaller fish. They also reproduce at blistering speeds; one female can produce upwards of 1 million eggs in her lifetime. "They are programmed to eat and breed," said Jennifer Nalbone, the Navigation and Invasive Species specialist at Great Lakes United, on a conference call with reporters last week. When startled, the fish can also leap up to eight feet in the air with enough force to smash into fishing and recreational boats. While it might take years for the carp to establish a firm presence, the threats to the region's $7 billion fishing industry, as well as the $16 billion recreational boating industry, are immense.
How close are they to Lake Michigan?
In late November, the Army Corps of Engineers validated scientific research that found the species had breached an electric barrier on the Sanitary and Ship Canal, less than 100 miles from the lake. In response, Illinois officials quickly dumped a toxic chemical into a nearly 6-mile stretch near Lockport where the fish were located, killing an estimated 100 tons of additional fish in the process. But it wasn't enough. In late January, researchers at the University of Notre Dame identified Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan's Calumet Harbor near the Illinois-Indiana border. Last Tuesday, Illinois officials promised to take another shot at targeted removal. Starting this week, they will use nets and electrofishing techniques to trap the fish. While none have yet been detected in the lake itself, the urgency is clearly growing.
The dueling solutions
After convening an "Asian carp summit" with Gov. Pat Quinn and other Midwestern elected officials last week, the White House released its own $78.5 million Asian carp deterrence plan. At a crowded public hearing hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Chicago on Friday, environmentalists give the administration's proposal mixed reviews. They approved of funding for the construction of new barriers to protect against flooding, as well as expanded research into DNA monitoring and analysis. More crucially, the administration hinted for the first time it would consider periodically closing the two navigational locks along the canal several times each month -- perhaps for as long as a week -- which is a main priority for the green coalition. When barges pass through the lock, more poison would be thrown into the water as a partial deterrent.
Still, environmentalists expressed disappointment with the White House's lack of a timeline or cohesive plan. "It's like presenting a list of ingredients," says Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation, "without a recipe."
They instead stress the need to implement what the National Resource Defense Council's Thom Cmar called, "short-term, zero tolerance policies." More specifically, they're arguing in favor of what's called "ecological separation." That means permanently separating the Great Lakes from Mississippi River Basin by shutting down the locks immediately and fully -- a move six Great Lakes states and Ontario tried (and failed) to force through a court order. The Obama administration plan reserves some funding for research into the viability of such a project.
Illinois lawmakers and barge operators are already working to block the "separation" approach. At a news conference Thursday, Reps. Debbie Halvorson, Judy Biggert, and Danny Davis spoke out against any lock closures, suggesting it will hurt statewide commerce. That was also the concern of many of those who attended the public hearing Friday. Yet economic research from Wayne State University in Detroit seems to contradict their thesis. Only 7 million tons of cargo moves through the locks annually, represent less than 1 percent of all Chicago-area freight traffic. That load could be addressed by adding two trains to the fleet of over 500 that (slowly) work themselves around the city each day -- a fix that would only cost $70 million per year. Cleaning out a carp-infested lake would be far more expensive.
As the debate continues over how best to prevent a possible carp invasion, here is the question at the center of it all: Will Illinois officials support the parochial interests of local businesses or make every effort to protect one of the state's most treasured natural resources?
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En consommant des quantités massives de plancton et les algues, les poissons seraient essentiellement assommer la plus basse espèce dans l'alimentation de l'eau de la chaîne, au détriment des poissons plus petits.
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haha :D I didn't though that carps make that much of an damage!
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I've always thought that Asian carps are naturally orange in color. I like carps, goldfish, and kois. In fact, we have an aquarium in our search engine marketing services firm.
Carps really bring trouble when they rise in numbers. They overshadow all smaller fishes in the area. The government should make a rigid plan for these. Carp invasion is a disaster.magnetic sponsoring review
I don't think so carps bring trouble but if it's true may be the government should do solutions that can't affect the species (Asian Carp).
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Asian carps are really in orange , i also like asian carps .
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MUTUAL AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA, INC.
103 Methodist St., Cecilia, KY 42724
Cell Ph: 270-307-4857; Office Ph: 270-862-4537
Fax: 270-862-4379; Skype: 270-872-4493
Email: jimmiller5417@gmail.com
July 5, 2011
TO WHOM THIS LETTER SHOULD CONCERN
Re: Carp Catchers Cooperative solution to the Asian Carp Invasion
Dear Concerned:
We know the problem from all the talking heads; few, if any of the talking heads, will admit to the best solution, which is the massive depopulation of Invasive Asian Carp by means of a robust, large-scale commercial fishing industry. Major studies have long ago so concluded. The State of Illinois is said to have put two million at the disposal of commercial Asian carp processing factories. I've seen no reports that the money has actually been spent on the stated objective nor whether any additional Asian carp have actually been harvested.
Carp Catchers Cooperative, LLC, has the solution which over time will likely reduce the ratio of Asian carp to native fish from about 20:1 to about 1:1 in the most heavily invested waters (e.g. Illinois River), and thereby drastically reduce the risk of invasion into the Great Lakes and Canadian waters. Please visit: http://carpcatchersco-op.wetpaint.com
It's time for action. Carp Catchers Cooperative needs funding for a variety of early, pre-seed actions, namely completion of the marketing plan to popularize consumption of Silverfin (a.k.a. Silver and Big Head Asian carp - $12,000 to $24,000), and funding of working drawings for the three ship fleet and for the shipyard in which to build the fleet ($300,000).
Once those objectives are accomplished, CCC will need funds for the purchase of the land upon which the shipyard will be built ($150,000 to $250,000), funds for the construction of the shipyard and infrastructure (2 to 3 million), funds for the construction of the three wooden, ferry-like ships: the Carp Avenger (harvester), the Carpe Carpae (fish processing), and the Carp Ark (flotel for workers), $21.5 million for the three ships.
These funds are a drop in the bucket of what it would cost Canada and the USA to rid the Great Lakes and tributaries of Asian carp once they crossed the ineffectual barriers offered by current technology. The time to act is now, not later; talking is not the same as catching fish.
The longer we wait, the greater the risk of transmigration from an increasing carp population, floods and storms; the more the offensive against the Asian carp will cost; the less likely Congress will appropriate the necessary funds; and the greater the potential losses to the Great Lakes Fishery and Tourist Industries will mount, making the already depressed economy in the Great Lakes regions less viable as part of America's economic engines. When there is so much at stake, why do we have so many studies, conferences, meeting, speeches, and wagging tongues and no caught Asian carp to show for such efforts?
The project could well be an "open source" project with contributions of talent and funds by the interested parties with the opportunity for any fishery company to copy our working drawings and build their own fleets.
If you care to read our initial draft of the Carp Catchers Cooperative (CCC) business plan,[http://carpcatchersco-op.wetpaint.com/page/BUSINESS+PLAN+--+A+BRIDGE+OVER+TROUBLED+WATERS ] you will see that there is deep concern for the survival of the native fish currently being driven to the point of extinction by the Asian carp in the Mississippi River Basin National Waters. The same effect is likely to occur in Canadian waters once the Asian Carp establish themselves there. CCC's method of harvest includes the sorting and returning to the river via a padded water tube slide, all native fish caught, alive and unharmed. Contrast this method with the current one of using gill nets which kill both native fish and Asian carp. Thus, the gill net “by-catch” is either thrown back into the river or lake, dumped into a land fill, or ground as fish meal or filleted. This approach does nothing to save our native fish populations and works against the sustainability of our native fish populations.
The beauty of the CCC solution is that all of the funding can be a loan, the repayment, (along with the interest), can easily be accomplished by the sale of the high quality, good tasting Silverfin, which possess a few, large bones. Contrast this approach, if you please, with the non-recoverable grants generally given favored study groups. CCC needs funding for the research incident to the use of microwave food processing tunnels and the use of the “danger pheromone” in herding carp into schools over the harvest net.
Of the 12 million pounds expected to be harvested annually, about 4.4 million pounds will go into vacuum-sealed pouches, then passed through the Microwave Food Processing Tunnel, which uses low power energy. This process kills 100% of the pathogens 100% of the time and allows the packaged Silverfin to be stored at room temperature for a year or more.
While all of the government agencies are sitting on their hands, some having failed at the U.S. Supreme Court level and in Congress, the prolific Asian carp are gaining on the native fish and moving every closer to the point of no return as they seek ways of invading the Great Lakes and the tributary rivers in the U.S. and Canada.
The talking heads do not catch Asian carp; carp fisherfolk do. It is time the funding be directed at the best solution, rather than purloined by savvy study groups which are politically well connected, but have no massive, low cost, self-sustaining solution. Permission is given to all organizations and persons to copy and republish this letter, without reserve.
Sincerely,
James E. Miller, BA, BS, JD
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