CHICAGO, Illinois, January 19, 2010 (ENS)
Asian carp are closing in on Lake Michigan, but today the U.S.
Supreme Court denied a request by the state of Michigan for
a preliminary injunction that would have forced the emergency
closure of Chicago-area locks to keep the invaders out of the
Great Lakes.
Asian carp are closing in on Lake Michigan, but today the U.S.
Supreme Court denied a request by the state of Michigan for
a preliminary injunction that would have forced the emergency closure of
Chicago-area locks to keep the invaders out of the Great Lakes.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, called on President Barack Obama to now use
his powers to close the locks because Asian carp environmental DNA continues to
turn up near Lake Michigan.
The multi-agency Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, RCC, announced
that University of Notre Dame scientists have found one positive eDNA result for
silver carp in Calumet Harbor half a mile north of the Calumet River and one more at
a location in the Calumet River north of O'Brien Lock. These samples were collected
on December 8 and recently processed.
"From what we have seen in other parts of the country, Asian carp could
out-compete our native, sport and commercial fish in southern Lake Michigan," said
Charlie Wooley, deputy regional director, US Fish and Wildlife Service. "We call them
an aquatic vacuum cleaner because they filter important food resources out of the
water and turn it into carp biomass."
Great Lakes conservation groups issued a joint statement today calling for urgent
action to separate the two watersheds, isolating the carp on the Mississippi River
side.
Meanwhile, the Corps and other RCC agencies are considering rapid deployment of
electrofishing and specialized netting alternatives in the area near O'Brien Lock to
keep a self-sustaining population of Asian carp from forming.
Though the US Army Corps of Engineers has said allowing Asian carp into the Great
Lakes would be an "ecological and economic disaster," Michigan Attorney General
Cox says the Obama administration and Illinois officials are fighting his efforts to
protect the lakes.