FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 1, 2009
Contact Jim Dexter 269-685-6851 or Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014
Michigan DNR to Assists Illinois on Asian Carp Project
The Department of Natural Resources will send a crew of fisheries
technicians and fish-killing chemicals to Illinois this week as part of
an assault on Asian carp populations in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship
Canal that threaten to make their way into the Great Lakes.
The large exotics, which escaped from agricultural facilities in the
South and have become established in the Mississippi and Illinois
Rivers, are able to out-compete native species and pose a dire threat to
the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish have been kept out of the
Great Lakes by a $9 million electric barrier, though recent DNA testing
of water samples suggests the fish have breeched the barrier and are a
mere seven miles from Lake Michigan.
The electrical barrier is scheduled to be deactivated for necessary
maintenance for several days in December. The Illinois Department of
Natural Resources plans to kill the carp in a stretch of the canal below
the electrical barrier with rotenone, a natural substance, before the
barrier is shut down.
“We jumped on board the minute Illinois requested assistance with
this project because the potential of these fish getting into the Great
Lakes could be ecologically devastating,” said DNR Lake Michigan Basin
Coordinator Jim Dexter. “If they do get in, they could wreak havoc on
the Great Lakes and its tributaries.”
Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of
consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and
can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could
drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and out-compete
native species for habitat.
The DNR will send six technicians and three boats from Plainwell and
Pontiac as well as most of the department’s inventory of rotenone and
potassium permanganate, which neutralizes rotenone, to Illinois for the
project.
“Given the potential environmental damage these fish can do to the
Great Lakes, we think getting on board with this project is a
no-brainer,” Dexter said.
The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management,
accessible use and enjoyment of the State’s natural resources for
current and future generations.
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FYI, A Bighead carp was found 500 ft above the Lockport Lock and Dam earlier today (12/03), near the west bank by a USFWS biologist from the Carterville Illinois office. The fish is 21 7/8" long. Logic would expect more Asian carp to be found through the weekend as collection samples continue. There will e several articles and TV news covering this so keeping up with all the media for the next few days will be hectic.
Asian carp found in canal during poisoning
Lockport, Ill – Fish are floating in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in one of the nation's largest ever river poisoning operations – and at least one of those fish is a confirmed Asian carp. "We got a bighead carp toward the end of the day," John Rogner of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said late Thursday afternoon.
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EPA to spend $13 million to help stop Asian carp
Less than two weeks after fishery experts spent about $3 million to poison the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in a desperate attempt to beat back an Asian carp invasion of Lake Michigan, the federal government has announced it will throw another $13 million at the problem.
That money will come from the recently passed $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and much of it will go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so the agency can build emergency berms and plug various waterways in the Chicago area to keep the carp from riding floodwaters into the lake.
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"Steve S" said:
"HI! I'm From The Government and I'm Going To HELP YOU!!
Yep, The big money maritime lobbyist have the politicians bought off to make sure all ballast water exotics from the Atlantic ocean and barge traffic carp from the Mississippi River are free to destroy the Great Lakes at will. If the government really wanted to "We're here to help the Great Lakes" they could have bypass the 'crime pays, money talks' business as usual a decade ago. Don't look for much to much help from the 5/4 Supreme Court that ruled for corporations to control the country. The maritime industry corporations can now threaten to run their million dollar issue adds against any politician that goes against keeping the canals open using any number of side issue adds without mentioning the Asian carp directly. Thus the point is we can continue to keep our forum cohorts informed on the carp migration progress and ecological impact, but don't expect any miracles to save the Great Lakes from Asian carp. No fishing club in the Great Lakes has enough money to protect the fishery. The good intentions of the Carp Petition signatures will never offset 'crime pays, money talks'. We can only help the GLS program grow trophy muskie feeding on unlimited carp forage.
Grand Traverse Band joins Asian carp lawsuit
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08/31/10 by Roxanne Werly
TRAVERSE CITY — The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians filed a motion Tuesday to join Michigan and the Great Lakes states in a lawsuit regarding the concern of Asian Carp. It's the first motion by a tribe to join the litigation.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox filed the lawsuit July 19, 2010. Attorneys general from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio joined Cox in his lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the Army Corps' isn't doing enough to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp. A Federal judge scheduled the first hearing on the lawsuit with live testimony taking place in Chicago Tuesday, Sept. 7 and Wednesday, Sept. 8.
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians filed a motion to join Michigan and the Great Lakes states as an intervening plaintiff.
A portion of the Brief filed by the Tribe is below:
Historically, fishing played a central role in the spiritual and cultural framework of Native American life. As the Supreme Court noted more than a hundred years ago, access to fish and wildlife was "not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed." United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381 (1905). Not only are the Great Lakes fish culturally important to the Tribes, these communities depend upon fisheries resources for their livelihoods. Moreover, by virtue of the supremacy clause (Article VI, clause 2) of the Constitution, Indian Tribes have a property right in treaty-reserved fishery resources that is paramount to the other economic interests cited by Defendants in defense of the relief requested by Plaintiffs. See Grand Case: 1:10-cv-04457 Document #: 122-7 Filed: 08/31/10 Page 1 of 6 PageID #:4813
More details on the lawsuit from the Michigan Attorney Generals Office can be found by clicking on THIS LINK. <url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
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