UPDATE July 12, 2013
NEW REPORT URGES ACTION TO PROTECT GREAT LAKES FROM ASIAN CARP INVASION.
Last year 16×9 aired a story, “Foreign Fish”, about how a prolific invasive species that has destroyed parts of the Illinois River could find its way into Canadian waters. On July 11, 2013 Canadian environmental advocacy group, Environmental Defence, released a report called “Tipping the Scales: How Canada and Ontario Can Prevent an Asian Carp Invasion of the Great Lakes”. The report outlines recommendations to Canadian provincial and federal governments about what needs to be done to prevent these ravenous fish from establishing in the lakes, eating native fish out of house and home, and turning lakes into a sludgy, murky mess.
For more information on Asian carp and to download a copy of Environmental Defence’s report visit: environmentaldefence.ca/asiancarp
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It’s like nothing you’ve seen before – 60-thousand Asian carp literally jumping into the air as motorboats rumble down the Illinois River. It may be amusing to watch – but Canadian scientists warn that if the spread of Asian carp isn’t stopped, parts of the Great Lakes could look similar to the Illinois river.
“They would arrive in Lake Michigan and from there spread,” says Becky Cudmore with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “They will be able to find suitable spawning habitats, they will be able to find enough food for them to reproduce and grow large populations. And in doing so they’re going to outcompete and push out our native fish.”
Asian carp are known for their eating habits and are capable of growing up to a hundred pounds.
“They can eat twenty to forty per cent of their weight in a day,” says Cudmore. “Because they can reproduce many times a year and they have a lot of young that they can then take over a space very quickly, so in terms of our native species, they’re out-competed in terms of food and space.”
The fish, native to China, were brought to North America in the 60s as a means of controlling excess algae and weeds in fish farms. For years, the fish were contained, but in 1994 when the Mississippi river basin flooded, the Asian carp began to spread.
An hour south of Chicago is a man made canal designed specifically to stop the Asian carp from ever reaching Lake Michigan. It’s a series of electric barriers placed underwater.
Lieutenant Colonel Jim Schreiner with The US Army Corps of Engineers helped build the 30-Million dollar barrier.
“So the electricity which is pulsing into the water will actually shock or disable the fish and then they would float naturally back downstream of the barrier,” he says. “It’s not intended to kill the fish, but it is intended to obviously impede any movement upstream towards Lake Michigan.”
But what’s alarming to some is the discovery of Asian carp DNA on the other side of the Canada – U.S. border.
“What we learned from that history is that you can’t underestimate the capacity for an invasive species, a single one, potentially, to cause – to be a complete game changer,” says Anthony Ricciardi, an invasive species biologist.
For the full story watch 16×9 Friday at 8 PM – AT/MT, 9 PM – CT, 10 PM – ET/PT.
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