The big head carp may be the next invasive species to populate the Great Lakes. The fish native to Asia is moving through the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. (photo courtesy Illinois Natural History Survey)
There may be two new invasive species coming to the Great Lakes. TheGreat Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
There may be two new invasive species coming to the Great Lakes. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.
The Big Head Carp and the Silver Carp are native to Asia. But
scientists have recently found increasing numbers of the fish in the
Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Jim Stoeckl is a biologist with the
Illinois Natural History Survey. He says he expects the fish to continue
to move north.
“Right now there is no barrier at all to these
species traveling from one drainage basin to the other. So it’s very
possible that the big head carp and the silver carp, which is a related
species, may actually make it up into Lake Michigan in the next couple
years.”
Stoeckel says the big head and silver carp multiply quickly and could
dominate Midwest waterways. He says they are already posing a threat to
native fish in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers including the paddle fish
and the gizzard shad. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan
Ahl.