Asian Carp Invasion - Great Lakes

[Seaweed]

Groups Declare Asian Carp Emergency,
Call on Federal and Provincial governments to insist that Michigan Close all connections to Lake Michigan

copied from Georgian Bay Forever website
http://www.georgianbayforever.ca/


(Toronto) – News today that Asian carp may be about to enter the Great Lakes requires immediate action by Ottawa and the governments of Ontario and Quebec to call on their U.S. counterparts to declare a state of emergency.

New testing results shows the presence of Asian carp DNA above the final electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping canal in Illinois and adjacent to the O’Brien Lock just 6 miles south of Lake Michigan in the Calumet River – nearly 20 miles closer than previous tests had shown.

The group is strongly urging that Federal and Provincial governments demand that the U.S. Government declare an emergency to allow the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Coast Guard and the State of Illinois close the O'Brien, Chicago River and Wilmette locks and use all measures to ensure the fish are stopped. Monitoring results show that the waterways contain both bighead and silver carp and that the electric barrier built to keep them out of Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes has been breached.

Asian carp are voracious filter feeders that can grow to more than 4 feet long and weigh up to 100 pounds. Their size and voracious feeding habits will muscle out the native fishery.

Asian carp currently constitute 95% of the biomass in the Illinois River south of the electric barrier. If not prevented from entering Lake Michigan, they will quickly dominate and then take over the entire Great Lakes fishery.

“This is an emergency situation. This is news we've been dreading since the day the carp escaped into the Mississippi River just over 10 years ago,” said David Sweetnam, Executive Director of Georgian Bay Forever. “Failing to stop these invaders will destroy our Great Lakes fishery. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has performed a Risk Assessment, and it shows that these fish constitute a high risk for establishing and proliferating throughout all our lakes and rivers. They like our cold water. It’s time to act – the time for study is over. We must save the Great Lakes -- the world’s largest surface freshwater system – now and not let this be another Sea Lamprey type of failure.”

Mary Muter, Georgian Baykeeper for Georgian Bay Forever said: “The stakes are too high -- we have to act now. Getting this wrong will be catastrophic for the Great Lakes. Georgian Bay Forever and other groups have warned of the potential need for drastic action for a number of years now.”

Just last week the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to close the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal for four to five days beginning Dec. 2 to perform routine maintenance on an electric barrier built to keep the carp at bay. While the barrier is out of service, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources plans to treat 6 miles of the canal between the barrier and the Lockport Lock and Dam with rotenone, a fish-killing poison. However, this new finding of Asian Carp DNA places the fish well above there, closer to lake Michigan. DFO and other Canadian Agencies have teams on standby to assist.

"If we don't close the locks linking this area with Lake Michigan, we are waving the white flag and allowing one of the greatest ecological tragedies to occur,” said Muter. "It is time for all emergency measures possible. It is too late to “study” this issue. Get out the fine nets, floats and weights and put them across every pathway. If the Asian carp make it to Lake Michigan, the damage to fisheries in the Lakes and tributaries will be profound and irreversible."

If the carp make their way into the Great Lakes, they could devastate the region's $4.5 billion fishing industry and permanently alter how recreational boaters, anglers and tourists use and enjoy the lakes and their many tributaries.

Link to map of the area: http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/projects/ ... index.html

What You Can Do: Email or call Canadian political leaders and ask that they insist that all emergency measures possible be put in place, including closing the locks and all hydrological connections to Lake Michigan until it is known that the Asian carp cannot get into the lake:

<p>The Honourable Gail Shea<br>
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans<br>
613-992-3474<br>
<a href="mailto:">Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca</a><br>
</p>
<p>The Honourable Jim Prentice<br>
Minister of the Environment<br>
Telephone : 613-992-4275<br>
Fax : 613-947-9475<br>
<a href="mailto:Minister@ec.gc.ca">Minister@ec.gc.ca</a><br>
</p>
<p>The Honourable Lawrence Cannon<br>
Minister of Foreign Affairs<br>
613-995-1851<br>
<a href="mailto:CannoL@parl.gc.ca">CannoL@parl.gc.ca</a><br>
</p>
<p>The Honourable John Gerretsen<br>
Ontario Minister of the Environment<br>
Telephone: (416) 314-6790<br>
Fax: (416) 314-7337<br>
<a href="mailto:minister.moe@ontario.ca">minister.moe@ontario.ca</a><br>
</p>
<p>The Honourable Donna Cansfield<br>
Ontario Minister of Natural Resources<br>
1-800-667-1940 or 416 314 2301<br>
<a href="mailto:dcansfield.mpp@liberal.ola.org">dcansfield.mpp@liberal.ola.org</a><br>
</p>
Keep the Carp out! - What you can do.

We all know the results of failing to prevent invasive species like the Sea Lamprey, Zebra Mussels and many others from entering the Great Lakes -- costs are estimated at over $200 million per year to Great Lakes States, Provinces, businesses and communities. And now we are at a critical point in the fight to prevent the next destructive invader from entering the Great Lakes throught the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal. Asian carp could result in an ecological disaster for the Great Lakes and the region’s commercial and recreational fishery if they invade the Lakes.

Asian carp are voracious feeders that can grow to over 40kg and more than 1 meter in length. In addition to their destruction of the native species, Silver Carp leap (see part one of this video) from the water when startled and cause a serious safety concern for boaters (see part two of this video). These filter feeding fish remove the food from the bottom of the food chain and have the ability to muscle out and starve our native aquatic species and fish and this could result in a collapse of the remaining Great Lakes commercial and recreational fishery.

We need to let the Honourable Ministers Shea and Prentice know that we want them to do everything possible and to work closely with our US partners to ensure these destructive invaders are kept out of our Great Lakes!

Email (or write) to:

The Honourable Gail Shea
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
Parliament Buildings, Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0A6



The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister of the Environment
Parliament Buildings, Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0A6

The list of Great Lakes Species at Risk that would be threatened by these invasive carp is long and includes Lake Sturgeon, three species of cisco, black striped minnows, Warmouth sunfish, American eel, several species of shiners and the Atlantic salmon. Lake Sturgeon and Atlantic salmon have only recently begun to re-establish self-sustaining populations in the Great Lakes and are very important to the recreational fishery.

Once into Lake Michigan, the Asian carp could quickly make their way into all the Great Lakes and its tributary rivers. A Risk Assessment study for the Asian carp was recently carried out by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and it showed that the risk of invasion is “high” and that the carp infestation could reach as far north as Canada’s Arctic waters.[/url]

[Eli]

scary
what I don't understand is that they say it was DNA that was found, so no actual fish...? i had no idea it was possible to isolate and identify species-specific DNA from a given body of water.

[joco]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO this is no good at all.

the go up in rideau syetems then into ottawa river up those rivers where we they finish.

joco

[JZ]

Lets hope they can stop them from entering the GL because they do pose a real danger to boaters. As for the effect on the fishery I am not convinced it will be the tragedy everyone is making it out to be. Eels,zebra mussels, gobys have all come and were suppose to kill the great lakes but the system is huge and seems to balance out in time. Now for the smaller connecting rivers and lakes it could be a major problem.

[steadyj_17]

As for the effect on the fishery I am not convinced it will be the tragedy everyone is making it out to be. Eels,zebra mussels, gobys have all come and were suppose to kill the great lakes but the system is huge and seems to balance out in time. Now for the smaller connecting rivers and lakes it could be a major problem.

this is no light matter this will be way worse then the gobys and others, this does have great potential to wipe out the great lakes.

[Eli]

Lets hope they can stop them from entering the GL because they do pose a real danger to boaters. As for the effect on the fishery I am not convinced it will be the tragedy everyone is making it out to be. Eels,zebra mussels, gobys have all come and were suppose to kill the great lakes but the system is huge and seems to balance out in time. Now for the smaller connecting rivers and lakes it could be a major problem.

eels?

[Duckbrat]

Hi,

If you don't mind I will post this on the Alberta outdoorsman website and inform more westerners to this imminent plague. MOre letters hopefully means more action.

Thanks

[JZ]

Lets hope they can stop them from entering the GL because they do pose a real danger to boaters. As for the effect on the fishery I am not convinced it will be the tragedy everyone is making it out to be. Eels,zebra mussels, gobys have all come and were suppose to kill the great lakes but the system is huge and seems to balance out in time. Now for the smaller connecting rivers and lakes it could be a major problem.

eels?

Lamprey eels, they were a big concern in the past. Don't get me wrong these carp would not be good if they invade the great lake but the point I was trying to make was that we have had 3 or 4 of these invasions in the last 30 yrs and every single one was the thing that was going to wipe out the GLs and for the most part they have been managed. Not necessary by humans because we tend to cause more problems, but by nature itself.

[Duckbrat]

Remember that these fish are not natural and were accidentally introduced during a hurricane that wiped out a fish farm adjacent to the river. Wonder who approved a fish farm right next to the river, Nice move.

[ratsotail]

Unfortunately, I'm located in this living laboratory now close to the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. And I'm here to tell you these fish are prolific breeders, very hardy, and seem to have found any possible way past seemingly "impenetrable" electric barriers placed in a shipping channel between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan.

I was also sytmied on how one would detect DNA of a certain fish in water and came across this: "New tests let scientists detect the DNA of fish in a river or lake without actually seeing them. Fish have to pee and poop, too, and epithelial cells sloughed off from their bodies showed that Asian carp were in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship canal last month above an electrical barrier that was supposed to keep them out of the Great Lakes".

To be factually correct the Bighead and Silver Carp were inadvertantly released into water systems during floods in Arkansas in the 1970s and again in the Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississipi (no hurricanes actually). If you google, "How did Asian Carp get into the Mississippi River" you will find some pretty good articles and some dirty political laundry starting in Arkansas (Clinton era) and some inept, but expensive solutions to keep the carp contained in the Illinois River.

I hope...for generations of fisherpeople to come...we find a way to halt the spread of this species...

ratsotail

[ratsotail]

Here's the most recent measure occurring to keep the Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes: http://video.foxnews.com/12148920/big-kill

tight lines and hard water!

ratsotail