Results tagged “asiancarp”

Is it any surprise that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers couldn't properly maintain a levee to hold up against a hurricane when they can't even seem to keep a fish out of Lake Michigan? New word from the Corps in the fight against the Asian carp is that they've discovered the fish's DNA beyond an electronic barrier that was set up along the Illinois River to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes. The new evidence was found a mere 7 miles from Lake Michigan, and at this point if the carp makes its way through a navigational lock it's home free from there, and its feeding habits will wreak havoc on the Great Lakes native species. Cameron Davis, from the Environmental Protection Agency, said that the DNA evidence is "very accurate" in terms of indicating the fish's presence.

The last time we checked in with the Asian carp, Congress had voted to allocate $6 million to help fight off their invasion, with the money going towards building permanent barriers and studying ways to get rid of the fish. On Friday, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced that it would dump Rotenone, a dangerous fish-killing chemical, into the canal between Romeoville and the Lockport Dam next month.

Oh sure, it's usually health care reform this and nuclear Iran that, but Congress is also tackling the big issues, like preventing Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. The carp, which can be up to 4 feet long and weigh 100 pounds, eat a whole lot of food and threaten to disrupt the food chain of the native fish that live in Lake Michigan and the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish has been found in the Illinois River, so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed an electronic barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and so far the barrier has kept the carp from getting into the lake.