Live Asian carp discovered near Lake Michigan

[TomSea]

Live Asian carp discovered near Lake Michigan
Canadian Press    John Flesher

© Provided by thecanadianpress.com TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - A live Asian carp has been discovered in a Chicago waterway about nine miles from Lake Michigan — well beyond an electric barrier network designed to prevent the invasive fish that have infested the Mississippi River system from reaching the Great Lakes, officials said Friday.

The silver carp was 28 inches long and weighed about 8 pounds, officials with the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee told The Associated Press. It was caught Thursday by a commercial fisherman under contract with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources about 2 miles below the below the T.J. O'Brien Lock and Dam in the Calumet River, on Chicago's south side.

The location is the closest to the Great Lakes that a silver carp is known to have reached, said Charlie Wooley, Midwest deputy regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Silver carp are among four types of Asian carp threatening to invade the lakes, where scientists say they could compete with native species, unravel aquatic food chains and devastate the region's $7 billion fishing industry.

Continued: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/live-asian-carp-discovered-near-lake-michigan/ar-BBD5h4U

[bigheadfred]

I thought I read about this last year. And the fish was closer than that. My guess is the fish is already in Lake Michigan and has been for some time.

[Cripplecreek]

I thought I read about this last year. And the fish was closer than that. My guess is the fish is already in Lake Michigan and has been for some time.

Yeah probably.

Obama gave several million dollars to Illinois (Chicago cronies) to study the problem and they naturally did nothing. They could have stopped the carp dead by closing the "shipping" canal but Chicago screeched about vital revenue while ignoring the real revenue the lakes produce for 7 other states. (Michigan's sportfishing industry alone produces some $10 billion per year.

I'm not unsympathetic to Chicago's economic needs but it doesn't take a great deal of brain power to figure out how to both protect the lakes and increase Chicago's revenue stream. Something along the line of cutting the man made link between the Des Moines river and the lake while using some sort of boat elevator paid for by tolls. Now it will cost untold millions of dollars per year to control the asian carp in the great lakes the way we pay to control the Lamprey.

Personally I'm disgusted that Obama centralized control over the great lakes in Chicago who have the smallest stake in what happens to the lakes.