Fish Swimming Through Asian Carp Barrier
By JoshMogerman in News on Feb 10, 2014 4:30PM
As if the report quietly released just before Christmas noting that some fish are swimming through the electric barrier intended to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan wasn’t frustrating enough for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just posted the embarrassing, albeit hazy, videos:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Margaret Burcham is quite comfortable that the threat of a Great Lakes Asian carp invasion is under control."We've got our electric barrier," she said before a Jan. 9 public hearing on the Army Corps' new study that says it will take at least a quarter-century to erect barriers to block the rapacious fish from swimming into Lake Michigan. "And we're confident that it is doing the job."
No, it is not.
Not if you believe a video obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that was taken by federal biologists last summer. Just one 3-minute clip reveals dozens of little fish swimming upstream through the swath of electrified water on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, only about 35 miles downstream from Chicago's lakeshore.
For folks concerned about the Great Lakes, this a strong entry for “America’s Most Depressing Home Video.”