GLIN==> Powering Up Efforts against the Advancing Asian Carp

Alliance for the Great Lakes

For Immediate Release                 
Monday, Aug. 10, 2009

Contact: Joel Brammeier
312-939-0838 x224
312-590-6494 (cell)

Powering Up Efforts against the Advancing Asian Carp

CHICAGO – Advancing Asian carp are now just 7 miles from the last of line of defense in the southwest Chicago suburbs before reaching the Great Lakes.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes today is calling for an immediate and aggressive response by federal and state agencies in light of reports Friday that the carp are closing in on an electrical barrier system designed to deter them from entering the lakes via the Chicago Waterway System.

“Until we separate the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River permanently, the risk of invasion now grows every minute,” said Joel Brammeier, acting president of the Alliance. “The only insurance we have today is to ramp-up the power taps to fully effective voltage.”

The electrical barrier system has been operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at a reduced voltage of 1 volt per inch since its partial completion earlier this year. Current system conditions allow operation at between 2 and 4 volts, but the barrier has never been turned up that high.

Once the barrier is immediately reinforced at its maximum operable capacity, Brammeier noted that aggressive monitoring should continue until the end of the carp migratory season.
The proximity of the destructive Asian carp to the last line of defense for the Great Lakes now puts more drastic measures for rapid response on the table.

“If the carp pass the barrier, the carp head for the Great Lakes,” said Brammeier. “Taking rapid response action will be critical or these magnificent lakes could become giant carp ponds.”

The design of the electrical barrier system and the artificial waterway where it was built make a response using “piscicide” -- or fish poison -- possible if needed. Such a solution may be appropriate if the carp show signs of breaching the electrical barriers.

“The state of Illinois has to put an abort on Asian carp if this mission goes critical, and it needs support from the entire region,” said Brammeier. “An ounce of prevention could save the Great Lakes from a crushing burden for decades to come – perhaps forever.”

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been working with an advisory panel of top invasive species experts on this issue since 1996. Fortunately, this group can be tapped at a moment’s notice to advise the department on an appropriate rapid response.

Known to eat up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and to grow to more than 3 feet long, Asian carp would bring catastrophic and irreversible results to the Great Lakes by diminishing algae and zooplankton populations, a dietary staple for other fish.

Asian carp – also known as bighead and silver carp -- were first introduced in the United States in the early 1970s in Arkansas to control algae in ponds. Flooding and accidental release allowed the carp to escape from aquaculture farms and spread throughout the Mississippi River basin in the 1980s and 1990s.

The possible presence of Asian carp within 7 miles of the barrier was detected via a new monitoring technique developed by the University of Notre Dame that can extract genetic material from water samples to identify the presence of Asian carp in the area. If the testing proves accurate, it means the carp have traveled 10 miles closer than previous monitoring had indicated. 

Testing is ongoing near the barrier site to determine if the carp are even closer.

Late last year Brammeier co-authored a report outlining six options for separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin to halt the transfer of Asian carp, as well as other invasive species, between the two watersheds. For more on the report, see:  www.greatlakes.org/invasives/ecosep


Susan Campbell
Communications Manager
Alliance for the Great Lakes
414-540-0699
Visit http://www.greatlakes.org



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20090810/d5f71659/attachment.html