Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:36:15 -0500 From: dan combs <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us> Subject: rampant oppression of my people, erm, brethren.. And that damned old goat keeps yapping about how his folks were oppressed... carpo -------------------- Carp to get shock of lives at canal -------------------- By Stanley Ziemba Tribune staff reporter July 13, 2004 An ecological battleground was established along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Romeoville Monday to keep invasive Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. Federal, state and local officials, along with Canadian Consulate General James Lynch, broke ground for an electric barrier across the canal that authorities hope will stop the carp with its voracious appetite from gobbling the Great Lakes' native fish and their food supplies. Asian bighead and silver carp, two species that can reach a length of 4 feet and a weight of 100 pounds, have made their way up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to within about 50 miles of Lake Michigan, said Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.). "The carp are coming, and they are coming fast," said Biggert, who helped secure nearly $1.5 million in federal funding for the project. "We stand here today at the last line of defense, the last barrier standing between these destructive fish and the thriving economy and ecosystem of our Great Lakes." Construction on the $6.7 million, pulsating underwater electric fence is set to begin July 26 and should be completed this fall. The Sanitary and Ship Canal is the sole link between the lakes and the Mississippi River. The state Department of Natural Resources is partnering with the Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Chicago Department of Environment on the barrier project. The Asian carp, which escaped from southern commercial fish farms where they were brought from China to control algae, are prolific reproducers and have been migrating up the Mississippi at the rate of 40 miles a year since the 1980s, said DNR Deputy Director Leslie Sgro. "They're taking over the waterway," Sgro said. "In some areas along the Illinois they make up 70 to 80 percent of the fish population. It's absolutely essential that we stop them." The electric fence will supplement a series of temporary electric cables that were strung across the canal two years ago to prevent invasive goby fish from migrating from the Great Lakes into the Mississippi watershed. The cable barrier, built as a demonstration project, is beginning to wear out, said Col. Gary Johnston, commander of the Chicago District of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing construction of the fence. If additional funding becomes available, plans call for replacing the existing barrier with a permanent one, creating two barriers a few hundred feet apart in the canal and making it more difficult for invasive fish to migrate between the Mississippi and Great Lakes, Johnston said. The rail-like barriers to be placed at the bottom of the canal work much as an electric fence deters pets and other animals, Johnston said. "They don't affect navigation on the canal, and they don't kill the fish; they just send enough of an electrical charge through the water to deter the fish from going beyond a certain point." Research has shown electrical barriers are almost 100 percent effective in deterring Asian carp. Still, Biggert and Sgro said barriers alone will not eliminate the threat that the carp could destroy the Great Lakes' $4.5 billion annual sport and commercial fishing industries. A solution must be found to reduce their numbers in the Mississippi River system, and more effort is needed to prevent people from dumping invasive fish into local waterways, they said. Over the last year, two Asian bighead carp, weighing 38 and 45 pounds, were caught in the McKinley Park lagoon on Chicago's South Side where they had been dumped, alarming conservation officials even though the lagoon is not connected to Lake Michigan. As a result, Chicago, the Park District and the state plan to shock the lagoon Tuesday to see if any other invasive carp inhabit it. Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005