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Written by triplepundit
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Wednesday, 03 February 2010 15:45 |
Despite the erection of physical barriers and, as I noted in a post last week, the enterprising solutions aimed at overfishing them into extinction, it might already be too late to fully protect the Great Lakes from their next greatest threat: the Asian carp. The DNA of Asian carp have been detected in Lake Michigan.
Much of the ink on this story has been about the impact Asian carp could have on the Great Lakes fisheries—based on the assumption that the fish would out-compete native species for food. The fisheries have reason to worry, based on a long, ugly history of invasive species in those important bodies of water.
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Written by triplepundit
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Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:03 |
Is there anything sustainable about a business model focused on exploiting a resource until that resource is gone?
When considering, say, the mining of natural resources, of course you would say no. But what about using this approach to curtail the introduction of an invasive species that threatens not only one of the world’s most important ecosystems, but also major industries?
The invader in question here is the Asian carp. The ecosystem is the Great Lakes.
There are actually two specific species, the silver carp—these like to fly out of the water—and the bigger, bullhead carp. Catfish farmers in the southern US introduced these species to their ponds decades ago, hoping they’d filter out unwanted algea. This all worked fine until the ponds breached during flooding in the early 1990s and the carp found their way into rivers that feed into the Mississippi. Then they found their way into the Mississippi and started working their way north, toward the Great Lakes.
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Written by Toledo Blade
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Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:00 |
Seventeen years of warning and this?
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) told The Blade yesterday she was absolutely stunned to learn that federal agencies not only are confused about how to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, but that they also appear to be waiting for someone else to take the lead.
The powerful fish with huge appetites have been the scourge of Great Lakes researchers since escaping from Arkansas fish farms when the Mississippi River flooded in 1993. Warnings were issued as the fish swam upstream. Experts have called Asian carp the poster child of harmful exotics, claiming they could wipe out the region's $7 billion sportfishing industry if they're ever allowed to colonize the lakes.
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Written by Attorney General Mike Cox
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 03:13 |
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and his counterparts in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin today called on the Obama administration to immediately meet with them to hear first-hand the concerns of job makers and families across the region over the immediate threat of Asian carp.
"It is our hope the bi-partisan team of Attorneys General leading the battle to protect jobs and the Lakes will have a seat at the table with the White House to help find a solution to this crisis," said Cox.
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Written by Circle of Blue
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Monday, 25 January 2010 11:05 |
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Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court rejection of Michigan’s request to immediately sever the connections between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan continues to reverberate, from the White House to the U.S. Congress and across the border in Ontario. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox sought the request as part of a larger effort to permanently cut off the carp-infested Illinois River from the Great Lakes and protect the lakes’ $7 billion sportfishing industry from irreparable harm. Asian carp, which can grow to 100 pounds and four feet long, have displaced native fish along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. The carp were imported decades ago for use in Southern states to clean the ponds of catfish farmers, but subsequently escaped into the Mississippi and began migrating north.
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