Asian carp: what now?

It is a rare event for the Great Lakes to register on the radar of media outlets outside of the region. It’s even rarer when the carp story is competing with the Copenhagen summit, a troop surge in Afghanistan, and Tiger Wood’s automotive mishaps.

With all those issues to cover, outlets from coast to coast were attracted to the Asian carp story unfolding in Chicago. There was much to draw them: giant fish, thousands of gallons of poison, upwards of 200,000 pounds of dead fish, and the future of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem.

The story crescendoed with the application of rotenone to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and arced back down as the poison took effect and crews pulled the dead fish from the water.

Now, the electric barrier is back online after maintenance, and the fish clean up winds down.

So where does that leave us?

After the application of rotenone, one bighead carp was found. Headlines ranged from “One Asian carp found in canal after fish kill” to “Massive Asian Carp Found Near Lake Michigan” Is this a significant find? The fish verifies that the eDNA test was an effective and sensitive early detection technique. In the future, it should prove useful in discovering the leading edge of an invading fish population.

In addition, Illinois DNR officials say that the cold weather meant many fish sunk to the bottom of the canal after they died. The US Geological Survey reports that Asian carp in particular have a propensity to sink after a rotenone treatment. In the coming weeks and months more dead fish are expected to surface, and likely some of them will include Asian carp. Nobody expected to find overwhelming numbers of Asian carp – and its a good thing we didn’t – but we’re not out of the woods.

How do we move forward from here?

Last Wednesday, Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Illinois, and the Chicago Department of Metropolitan Water Reclamation asking for immediate information on what they are doing to ensure the Asian carp do not enter the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes United and 25 other NGOs sent letters to the 6 Great Lakes states not currently involved urging them to help Michigan or to intervene on their own.

Currently, the Great Lakes Task Force – a bipartisan group of Congressional legislators – are circulating a letter to their fellow Members of Congress to sign on to. The letter calls on the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take immediate action to keep the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. The deadline for sign on is Thursday, December 17, and citizens are asked to urge their representative and Senators to add their name.

The story is far from over. Activity in Chicago last week focussed attention on the threat the Asian carp pose to the Great Lakes. The application of rotenone was one short-term measure in what is going to be a long, winding, effort to protect the Great Lakes.

Poisoning to begin in fight against Asian Carp

Illinois Department of Natural Resources officials are planning to add Rotenone — a fish poison — to a six mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal this afternoon. The treatment continues into the morning on Thursday. The canal itself will remain closed to boat traffic and fishing while officials clean up the dead fish and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertakes maintenence on the electric barrier meant to keep the carp out of the Great Lakes.

The fish kill had been in the works for a while, but took a twist in the past few weeks when tests indicated the presence of Asian carp DNA beyond the electric barrier, and just a few miles from Lake Michigan.

Since the announcement that the carp had likely breached the barrier, Great Lakes United has been working hard to get information out to the public and urge action to respond to the emergency. Simply put, Asian carp pose a enormous danger to the health of the Great Lakes. They are big, they are hungry, and they have a reputation for knocking the ecological legs out of the waterways they’ve invaded.

Since news of the breach came about, a lot of questions have been circulating about what this means, and what can be done to stop it.

The immediate response must be to close the last locks that seperate the carp from Lake Michigan. Specifically, this is the O’Brien, Wilmette, and Chicago River locks. In that time officials can assess just where the carp are, and work to push them back to behind the barrier. And that’s just what we’re asking the public to support.

Other concerns are circulating over the use of a poison to deal with the problem. EPA and Illinois DNR officials say that use of rotenone is considered safe to human and animal/vegetative health when used as directed. It isn’t persistent in the environment and breaks down quickly. It is being used far from drinking water intakes and an inhibitor will be used to keep the poison isolated and speed its breakdown when necessary.

Unless you breath through gills, you should be safe.

But poison isn’t a long-term solution to this problem. Application today and tomorrow will kill hundreds of tons of fish, not just Asian carp. It’s the most effective option for eliminating the carp, but must be considered the option that floats to the top among a collection of bad options.

Are the Great Lakes doomed? No. As Dr. Phil Moy from the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute remarks on the IJC Waternotes blog, a few fish in Lake Michigan isn’t going to spell disaster. The right action today can prevent a crisis tomorrow.

But, we can’t sit idly by thinking that we’re okay for now, a few fish aren’t going to pose a problem. Proactive planning is desperately needed.When the first images of dead fish start circulating, the urgency of this problem is going to sink in.