Asian Carp headed for a Great Lake near you

[Crystal]

I know, I know, it sounds like an urban legend or joke. But sadly, this is no joke. Please see:

http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/projec...ier/index.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/70573047.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009..._on_their.html

[Detroitnerd]

Oh, jeez. I have more pressing problems than Asian carp.

[Bobl]

This probable disaster could have been prevented by common sense [[not so- called free trade) regulation of imports. To allow the importation of this non native fish to "fish farms" in the south was pure lunacy or greed.
The canal near Chicago should be closed immediately, as the electric fence has been proven inadequate. It won't, due to the commercial interests of the barge operators who would lose their golden goose. An economic and ecological disaster will likely result.
Another indication of the results of "Free Trade": export jobs while importing non native species that wreak havoc on our ecosystem.

[pffft]

Urban legend?

You'd have to have never read a Detroit newspaper for the last two years, to not know about this.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091...420/1409/METRO

[Crystal]

Dear pffft, the big news now is that the Asian Carp is so much closer to the Great Lakes, and that the barrier seems to have failed.

This will, indeed, be an ecological disaster unless the canal is closed.

[pffft]

Crystal,
There have been stories about the carp breaching the canal for months now...really.

[Patrick]

Why do we always get the nastiest shit coming from Asia? Pythons in the Everglades, pandemics and flu starting in China, Asian Carp eating everything and Hondas. What's next?

[One4Detroit]

Also there is the emerald ash boring beetle that killed pretty much all of the ash trees in this region, including 3 large ones on my property that had to be 20 to 30 years old. There is talk of the invasive snakehead fish making its way into the great lakes too.

These situations are sad and it seems like once they are here there isnt much we can do.

[Bobl]

Zebra mussels, emerald ash borer, gobis, in addition to dangerous levels of lead paint on toys, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, the list goes on.
We need a common sense, "Fair Trade" policy.

[lpg]

Zebra mussels, emerald ash borer, gobis, in addition to dangerous levels of lead paint on toys, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, the list goes on.
We need a common sense, "Fair Trade" policy.

There won't be one as long as there is money is to made under this one.

[Ocean2026]

Is this a fishing thread? or just another anti-immigration theme. Sure American Carp work harder, have a better constitution, and more rights. If 1,000,000 Asian Carp occupied Detroit wouldn't that make up for all the population loss since 1970?

[oladub]

Not the result of trade-

"Silver carp were imported to Arkansas in the 1960s where they were used in federally funded sewage treatment experiments. They escaped their containment ponds soon thereafter and have been swimming north since."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/70573047.html

[Johnnny5]

It was only a matter of time before these carp made their way into the Great Lakes. Fortunately the vast majority of the Great Lakes system does not offer as ideal of conditions to these filter feeders as the Mississippi River system does [[We can partially thank the Zebra Mussels for that). The warm, shallow waters of Saginaw Bay, St. Clair and Erie will be most at risk, but many of the non-dammed Great Lakes tributaries will as well. IMO they will not spread as quickly here as in the Mississippi and hopefully that will allow us time to find a solution.

[MichMatters]

I'd originally heard that they were carnivorous, and ate the young of other fish, but from actually doing a little study on them, it seems that they eat plankton almost exclusively, and that their danger comes from the fact that they compete with other plankton-eating fish for the same food, which means they essentially starve other adolescent fish.

[Bigb23]

Sure would make for a lousy swimming experience !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdcQ5...layer_embedded

[TKshreve]

I'd originally heard that they were carnivorous, and ate the young of other fish, but from actually doing a little study on them, it seems that they eat plankton almost exclusively, and that their danger comes from the fact that they compete with other plankton-eating fish for the same food, which means they essentially starve other adolescent fish.

Yes, but once all the plankton is gone...... and let's hope we don't get to this point....... these asian carp modify their diets to bottom feeding. By doing so they will begin to deplete another species [[or more) sources of food. It can be very serious.

Someone needs to be shot over this.

[Bobl]

Not the result of trade-

"Silver carp were imported to Arkansas in the 1960s where they were used in federally funded sewage treatment experiments. They escaped their containment ponds soon thereafter and have been swimming north since."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/70573047.html

They were then imported for use by commercial "fish farms" in the 1970s and 80s, to control the waste products. Escaped when farms were flooded....

[Crystal]

Check out:

http://www.glu.org/asiancarp

[ddf313]

European people [[The Colony Years). Blankets. Empty Assurances of peace to the natives.

[Zacha341]

Don't forget the Kudzu plant growing like wild in the southern states [[our Michigan winters kill anything top side - aside from evergreens) and Toyota's [[just can't get those older models off the road!!). LOL!

Why do we always get the nastiest shit coming from Asia? Pythons in the Everglades, pandemics and flu starting in China, Asian Carp eating everything and Hondas. What's next?

[Crystal]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 1, 2009

Contact Jim Dexter 269-685-6851 or Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014

[[from the DNR Wire)

Michigan DNR to Assists Illinois on Asian Carp Project

The Department of Natural Resources will send a crew of fisheries
technicians and fish-killing chemicals to Illinois this week as part of
an assault on Asian carp populations in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship
Canal that threaten to make their way into the Great Lakes.

The large exotics, which escaped from agricultural facilities in the
South and have become established in the Mississippi and Illinois
Rivers, are able to out-compete native species and pose a dire threat to
the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish have been kept out of the
Great Lakes by a $9 million electric barrier, though recent DNA testing
of water samples suggests the fish have breeched the barrier and are a
mere seven miles from Lake Michigan.

The electrical barrier is scheduled to be deactivated for necessary
maintenance for several days in December. The Illinois Department of
Natural Resources plans to kill the carp in a stretch of the canal below
the electrical barrier with rotenone, a natural substance, before the
barrier is shut down.

“We jumped on board the minute Illinois requested assistance with
this project because the potential of these fish getting into the Great
Lakes could be ecologically devastating,” said DNR Lake Michigan Basin
Coordinator Jim Dexter. “If they do get in, they could wreak havoc on
the Great Lakes and its tributaries.”

Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of
consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and
can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could
drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and out-compete
native species for habitat.

The DNR will send six technicians and three boats from Plainwell and
Pontiac as well as most of the department’s inventory of rotenone and
potassium permanganate, which neutralizes rotenone, to Illinois for the
project.

“Given the potential environmental damage these fish can do to the
Great Lakes, we think getting on board with this project is a
no-brainer,” Dexter said.

The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management,
accessible use and enjoyment of the State’s natural resources for
current and future generations.

[Crystal]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/78353072.html

[old guy]

I have to applaud Granholm on that one.

[Bobl]

From Eric Sharp's column in today's Free Press:

A veteran Great lakes biologist once told me that when the possibility of Asian carp reaching the Great lakes was first broached nearly 20 years ago, he wondered aloud why the Great Lakes states didn’t start “some kind of class action lawsuit” against the Arkansas fish farmers and federal agencies that first imported them to eat unwanted algae and snails in canals, fish farms an sewage lagoons.
After all, it was escapees from the fish farms and sewage treatment plants that got into he Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, where they now form as much as 95% of the fish biomass in a given stretch of water.
But that biologist soon was told by superiors that such talk would upset some people with strong political connections and he should be quiet. I heard the same story from a federal biologist who worked on the Mississippi River and who nearly saw his job eliminated because he wouldn’t shut up.
The role of government in this mess, including the Environmental Protection Agency, which actually brought in and released first Asian carp species, the grass carp, in the 1960s, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has utterly bungled the plan to build an anti-carp barrier in the Chicago canal, goes beyond mere stupidity and carelessness.
These agencies and some of the people in them should be charged with misfeasance and malfeasance and fired. But given the general lack of concern and knowledge about things environmental by our political leaders, and their repeated interest in protecting well-connected political contributors at the expense of the public good, there’s probably not much chance we’ll see that.
But the one thing that grabs politicians where it counts is public outrage that could cost them their jobs, as has been made evident by the fear shown by members of Congress on both sides of the health care issue.
We can’t say for sure what will happen if Asian carp reach the Great Lakes. But that was also true of lampreys, zebra mussels and other invaders that have wreaked terrible damage, and we can’t afford to take the risk of inaction.
We need to make our political leaders just as fearful about what will happen if they and their parties get the blame for failing to take the steps that might still preserve the lakes from a potential ecological disaster.
If Granholm and Cox are serious about protecting the lakes, they will take leadership roles to form a coalition of other state governments, Ontario, anglers, environmentalists and tourism interests that can present a powerful, united front.
Anything less will be mere window dressing.

[Bobl]

Mich. files suit in US high court over Asian carp