Category: Asian Carp Invasion

The Environment Report has been covering the introduction of the Asian Carp species since January of 2000, when catfish farms in the south were importing them to control pests. The fish have since spread throughout the Mississippi River system. Millions of dollars of taxpayer money has been spent to try to keep these foreign species from swimming into the Great Lakes. Some scientists say their presence in the Great Lakes would be an “ecological disaster.” Today, evidence of an Asian Carp species was found above an electric barrier designed to prevent their movement into the Great Lakes.

Manmade Dead Zone to Block Asian Carp?

The Asian Carp is a huge fish that’s native to China. It was brought over from China and during the Great Flood of 1993 escaped from farm ponds and got into the Mississippi River. The Asian Carp competes with native fish and destroys their habitat. Researchers worry that if the Asian Carp gets into the Great Lakes, it could damage the lakes’ ecosystems. Some scientists believe that the threat of this invasive fish to the Great Lakes fishing industry is great enough to take drastic measures. One proposal would kill part of a river that connects the Mississippi River System to the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Transcript

The Asian Carp is a huge fish that’s native to China. It was brought over from China and
during the Great Flood of 1993 escaped from farm ponds and got into the Mississippi
River. The Asian Carp competes with native fish and destroys their habitat. Researchers
worry that if the Asian Carp gets into the Great Lakes, it could damage the lakes’
ecosystems. Some scientists believe that the threat of this invasive fish to the Great
Lakes fishing industry is great enough to take drastic measures. One proposal would kill
part of a river that connects the Mississippi River System to the Great Lakes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Since late in the 19th century until now, Chicagoans have spent billions of dollars to
clean up their water. Untreated sewage used to flow into the Chicago River and was
carried into Lake Michigan, where the city got its drinking water.

In the summer of 1885, 12 percent of the population of Chicago died of cholera and
other diseases because of fouled water.

Phil Moy is with the Wisconsin Sea Grant. He says before modern-day sewage treatment
plants, the river was a cesspool.

“You go back far enough, like before there was really even much more than primary
treatment… you had cattle carcasses and all sorts of nasty things floating and actually in
the river itself.”

More than a century ago, city planners decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River,
to protect people’s health. This involved digging a larger and deeper canal that connected
the Mississippi River system to the Great Lakes. From then on, sewage dumped in the
Chicago River flowed downstream instead of into the lake. Chicagoans’ water supply
was no longer tainted, but the project opened up a way for fish and other species to travel
between the rivers and the Great Lakes. So Chicago’s efforts to clean up the sewage back
then, has caused unintended consequences a century later.

Now scientists are trying to find ways to stop exotic species that have invaded the
Mississippi from getting into the Great Lakes and exotic species that have invaded the
Great Lakes from getting into the Mississippi. Ships and barges use the canal to transport
goods, so putting up a physical barrier wouldn’t work. For now, the government has
spent more than a million dollars on an electric barrier that repels the fish, but they need a
second electric barrier for extra protection. However, more money from the government
to build the second barrier has been slow in coming.

So in the interim, some experts have come up with an idea… a temporary solution that
flies in the face of the Clean Water Act. They want to pollute the river again.

Jerry Rasmussen is with the Mississippi Inter-State Cooperative Resource Association.
The group tries to coordinate states’ efforts to protect the river system. Rasmussen says
creating a dead zone could be done easily and at low cost.

“Probably the least expensive thing to do in this situation would be shutting down some
of the treatments. It would be a cost effective measure, certainly in the interim.”

Rasmussen says the first step would be to shut off the aerators.

(natural sound)

South of Chicago, along part of the canal that connects the Chicago River to the
Mississippi River system, an inoperative aerator sits alongside the water. It’s not needed
in the wintertime, because there’s enough oxygen in the water during the cold months.
During the summertime, the aerators are turned on to help keep the river healthy. But
Irwin Polls of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District says shutting off the aerators
alone during the summer would not reduce the oxygen level enough to be lethal to the
fish.

“Keep in mind, in the early fifties and in the nineteen-sixties, before supplemental
aeration, before the treatment plants were upgraded, the primary fish species in these
waterways were carp and goldfish which could survive at lower oxygen levels than we
have today.”

So if common carp could survive the lower oxygen levels, maybe Asian Carp could, too.
If shutting off the aerators isn’t enough to degrade the river’s water quality, things could
get messy.

Jerry Rasmussen says releasing more sewage waste into the river by omitting the final
stage of waste treatment could be enough to create the dead zone. If not, Rasmussen says
chemicals would need to be added to make the water more toxic. Irwin Polls says this is
a bad idea.

“The kind of chemicals they’re talking about are hazardous. Over one and a half billion
gallons of treated sewage enters this system every day so you’d have to kind of add
enough material to dilute the system that you have in there so we’re talking about large
volumes, continuously, of toxic compounds. So it would be in violation of the law, the
federal laws, as far as introducing toxic compounds and the cost I think would be
astronomical, because the volume of water is tremendous.”

Breaking federal law is the major obstacle to implementing the dead zone plan. To
violate the Clean Water Act, scientists would have to get the support of the Mayor of
Chicago, the Illinois Governor, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and
ultimately the President.

But some scientists believe they’ve got to do something now to stop the Asian Carp.
They’re worried the carp might get into Lake Michigan while they wait to get enough
government money to make repairs on the existing electric barrier, and to buy and install
the second. They hope to have the second line of defense in place in a year. A meeting
with government leaders and experts on invasive species has been scheduled for
sometime in May. That’s when the plan’s supporters will try to convince policy-makers
to kill part of the river.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Killing River to Stall Spread of Invasives?

Biologists are trying to prevent invasive species such as the Asian carp, from traveling between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. The latest plan proposed by some scientists is to remove all the oxygen from a section of the Chicago River. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell has more:

Transcript

Biologists are trying to prevent invasive species such as the Asian carp from traveling between
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river basin. The latest plan proposed by some scientists is to
remove all the oxygen from a section of the Chicago river. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Annie Macdowell has more:

Scientists say killing part of the river would create a barrier no fish could swim through and live.
Removing the oxygen is against the Clean Water Act, but biologists think it might be worth it.

Jerry Rasmussen is a river biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the
potential economic and ecological disaster from the invasive species justifies creating this dead
zone.

“The real problem has been reluctance of everyone, including myself, to take a measure like this
because of the implications of it and the precedents it sets, but the concern is significant enough
with these Asian Carp that a significant problem may require significant measures to stop it.”

Rasmussen says killing a section of the river buys engineers time to work on a long-term solution
to the invasives problem, such as building a second electric barrier. He says the river would be
shut down for a minimum of two years and then re-oxygenated so that living things could return.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Feds Invest to Stop Invasives Threat

Emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some experts think the Asian carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports on recent measures to stop the fish:

Transcript

Some emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some
experts think the Asian Carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake
Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports
on measures to stop the fish:

The only thing keeping the Asian Carp from leaving the Mississippi River
system and entering Lake Michigan through a canal is an electrical barrier.
That barrier repels the fish, but a power outage could shut off the barrier, and
allow the carp to enter the Great Lakes.

The International Joint Commission and three federal agencies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency, put together 300-thousand dollars for a
back-up power source.

Tracy Mehan with the EPA says it’s important to act quickly.

“It’s a modest investment with a huge payoff in terms of avoiding, yet
another scourge to the Great Lakes fisheries. We’ve got 160 exotic species
that weren’t here in the last century and we didn’t need another one
especially something with such a high impact as the Asian Carp can have.”

Asian Carp grow up to 4-feet long and 100 pounds. They eat native fish,
and have no predator in this part of the world.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.

New Bubble Barrier to Repel Asian Carp?

The Asian carp is threatening to invade the Great Lakes. Right now there’s an electric barrier in the Chicago canal to stop the fish from getting into Lake Michigan, but a new study shows it’s not 100-percent effective. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie Macdowell reports, scientists are working on a second line of defense…bubbles:

Transcript

The Asian carp is threatening to invade the Great Lakes. Right now there’s an
electric barrier in the Chicago canal to stop the fish from getting into Lake
Michigan, but a new study shows it’s not 100% effective. As the Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Annie Macdowell reports, scientists are working on a second
line of defense – bubbles.

In a recent experiment by the Illinois Natural History Survey, a startled Asian
carp swam straight through an electric field like the one in the Chicago Canal.

The International Joint Commission is bringing specialists from Britain to build
an experimental acoustic bubble barrier and test it on the Asian carp. It works
like this: a pump filled with air and sound expels bubbles with sound trapped
inside.

Bill Moy of the Wisconsin Sea Grant says the process creates a nearly seamless
barrier.

“If you just project sound into the water, it’s not like a wall of sound. But by
entraining the sound in this bubble, you can actually create a wall of sound in
the water that’s much more uniform.”

Moy says the infrasound inside the bubbles is like an idling truck – you can feel it
more than you hear it.

The fish can’t find a break in the sound, so they turn around.

The International Joint Commission says if they decide to install the bubble
barrier, it won’t be until the spring.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Battle Plans for Asian Carp

Asian carp are the new poster fish in the campaign against invasive species. For years, foreign invaders like the zebra mussel, the round goby, and now the carp have been threatening the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. Like their fellow species of concern, the carp have no natural predators to keep their numbers in check. Ecologists report that they are now closing in on Lake Michigan from the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. This has authorities in the U.S. and Canada stepping up efforts to control them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Diantha Parker reports:

Transcript

The Asian carp now in the spotlight are the silver and bighead varieties, and they share traits that worry environmentalists.

For one thing, they’re large…sometimes reaching up to a hundred pounds in less than three years. They escaped from fish farms in Mississippi about twenty years ago, and have been making their way up the Mississippi River ever since.

The carp voraciously consume the same microscopic organisms that native fish depend on.

They’ll out-eat anything in their midst. That means game fish won’t have as much to eat, and their populations will suffer.

And the carp are invasive in other ways, too. At a recent news conference a few yards from Lake Michigan, journalists and curious passersby inspected three enormous dead carp laid out on a folding table…glistening in the sun next to Pam Theil, a project leader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It sounds sensational, but they can jump out of the water into your boat. A gentleman who works for the Illinois Natural History Survey has gotten hit four times, the last time he had to file for workman’s compensation with a neck injury. A commercial fisherman on the Caskaskia River got his nose broken. And there are reports of people on the Caskaskia, who are going out fishing, or just recreation in their boat…they’re taking cookie sheets with them to act as a shield, so that they don’t get hit.”

The newest weapon in the Great Lakes Fight against the carp is an electronic barrier.
It was built in April by the Army Corps of Engineers and the International Joint Commission, an organization that oversees the use of waterways between the U.S. and Canada.

The electronic barrier sits in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal about 30 miles downstream from the city. The Canal is a manmade link between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. This particular spot was chosen for the barrier because it’s a revolving door between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin.

The barrier itself consists of about one hundred and sixty wires, spaced a few feet apart, that lie crosswise along the bottom of the canal. The wires emit electrical impulses to deter all fish that approach them.

“There is a charge that is applied to those cables.”

Dennis Schornack is U.S. chairman of the International Joint Commission.

“Not a real strong charge, not one that would be harmful to people, if they fell into the
canal, but strong enough for fish to sense it, and when they sense this charge in the water they turn, and turn back down the river.”

Right now, the electronic barrier is only in an 18 month test phase. The authorities involved say after that time is up, funding from Congress will be needed to keep it in operation.

Some people wonder why we can’t just catch these invasive carp and eat them. But while the carp are a popular food source in Asia, they’ve been slow to catch on here, says Pam Theil.

“I think that there is a mentality that we’d rather be eating walleye or something than carp.”

But a chicken processing plant in southern Illinois has looked into processing the carp…they’ve taste tested it as a product similar to tuna, but are still deciding whether it’s marketable.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Diantha Parker.

Asian Traditions May Spread Invasive Carp

Biologists say the invasive Asian carp is knocking on the door of the Great Lakes as populations of the imported fish make their way up the Mississippi River system. And while officials are seeking funding to construct and maintain an electric barrier to keep the fish out, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush reports that the fish has another way of getting into the lakes:

Transcript

Two years ago an Asian carp was netted in Lake Erie. And another was found
in a fountain in downtown Toronto. These fish were more than likely released
by humans. And while biologists have not yet found evidence of an
established population of Asian carp… they fear more releases like these
could lead to the spread of this harmful fish.

Dennis Schornack is the U.S. Chair of the International Joint Commission, a
governmental body which monitors the waters between Canada and the U.S. He
says that certain traditions of Asian immigrants may be unknowingly contributing to the problem:

“We are advised that there are certain customs in the Asian community which
involve not only eating the fish, but giving the fish back to the source, so
that it’s sort of, ‘buy two, eat one, return one.'”

Schornack says that the governments of Canada and the U.S. should educate
those who buy Asian carp for food about the threat the fish pose to the
Great Lakes ecosystem. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark
Brush.

Black Carp Introduction Gets Hooked

States in the Mississippi river basin are protesting a decision by the state of Mississippi to allow a foreign fish to be introduced tocontrol a pest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… the other states are concerned the fish will escape into the wild and damage the environment:

Transcript

States in the Mississippi River Basin are protesting a decision by the state of Mississippi to

allow a foreign fish to be introduced to control a pest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester

Graham reports the other states are concerned the fish will escape into the wild and damage the

environment:

If you buy a package of catfish filets at the supermarket or order blackened catfish at your

favorite restaurant, chances are that fish was raised in a farm pond in Mississippi. The state of

Mississippi supplies almost three-fourths of the world’s commercial catfish. It’s a two-billion

dollar a year business, coming in only after cotton and timber as one of Mississippi’s largest

industries.

In recent years, Mississippi farmers have been struggling with a parasite that’s attacking the

catfish. Jimmy Avery is a researcher with the National Warmwater Aquaculture Center at Mississippi

State University. He says the parasite is causing quite a bit of damage.

“It’s either killing these fish outright or it’s stressing them to the point they no longer grow.”

Avery says the parasite makes its home in snails. To get rid of the snails, the Mississippi

Department of Agriculture and commerce has approved introducing an Asian fish called the black

carp. The black carp eats snails and mussels. But, other states are worried that the black carp

will escape the farm ponds and get into the wild. Avery says that’s not likely…

“The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce has decided that through the permit

process, we can minimize this. They’ll know where every black carp is located. They’ll know what

kinds of system they’ve been put in and it felt like that those regulations that had been put in

place are strong enough to prevent that.”

But the State of Missisippi’s assurances don’t convince others. Roger Klosek is the Director of

Conservation at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He studies native mussels.

“If black carp are used to deal with the snail problem, eventually they’ll escape into the main

waterways, and start reproducing. And once they do that, they’ll start feeding on the native

mussel fauna which is one of the last remaining native mussel faunas in the United States and

literally wipe it out.”

Klosek says native mussel populations have already been hurt by another exotic species, the zebra

mussel. He believes the black carp would be the last straw for American freshwater mussels.

“So, somebody’s going to lose and it’s probably better – I know the catfish farmers will hate me

for saying this, but – it’s probably better that they lose a little economically rather than

reduce some of the native fauna to an irretrievable state.”

Some states’ officials agree with Klosek. Bill Bertrand works with the Illinois Department of

Natural Resources fisheries office. He says there’s a history of Asian carp getting loose. The

silver carp, the bighead carp, and the grass carp have already escaped from farm ponds, mostly

from Arkansas where there are few regulations.

“There’s a history of these exotics, imports, escaping into the river system, spreading throughout

the entire river basin system and causing impacts on all the other states in the system. And

Mississippi appears to tend to ignore that fact and go ahead their own merry way, saying ‘Well

we’re doing this because we want to do it and it’s beneficial to us.'”

Bertrand says governors of some of the states along the Mississippi River have sent letters to the

Governor of the State of Mississippi, asking him to stop the use of black carp. Several of the

states intend to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ban the importation of the fish. The

federal agency has not yet received that request… but even if the Fish and Wildlife service

found a ban was appropriate, it would take several months to go through the process. Even then, a

ban would not apply to black carp already in the U.S.

Mike Oetker is a fisheries biologist with the Fish and Wildlife service. He says the agency is

trying to play the role of mediator.

“Right now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to work with states and the industry to

try to prevent the problem of the possible release or accidental release of black carp into the

environment. There are several alternatives to black carp where we can use native fish such as the

red ear sunfish or freshwater drum or even big mouth buffalo to do the same type of biological

control that the black carp are doing. And that would give of the ability to kind of circumvent

this problem.”

The catfish farmers in the State of Mississippi say the native fish don’t eat the snails as

quickly as the black carp. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce says it will ask

farmers to use chemical treatments first and where native fish will work, they’ll try to use them.

but in the end, the Mississippi agency says it will allow catfish farmers to use black carp when

it appears other methods don’t work.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.