GLIN==> National Wildlife Federation Supports Legal Action by State of Michigan to Keep Asian Carp out of Great Lakes

For Immediate Release:
December 12, 2009

Contact:
Andy Buchsbaum, National Wildlife Federation, 734-717-3665
Jordan Lubetkin, National Wildlife Federation, 734-904-1589

National Wildlife Federation Supports Legal Action by State of Michigan
to Keep Asian Carp out of Great Lakes

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (December 21)—Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox
announced that Michigan today is filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme
Court against the state of Illinois to close navigational locks to keep
the invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

The move follows the discovery of Asian carp DNA only 6 miles from Lake
Michigan –past an electric fence designed to keep the non-native fish
from entering the lakes. Navigation locks are the only obstacles between
the fish and the Great Lakes.

Known to batter boaters and even knock them into the water at the sound
of a passing motor, Asian carp are voracious filter feeders that can
grow to more than 4 feet long, weigh up to 100 pounds and quickly
dominate a body of water by gobbling up the same food that sustains
native fish populations. 

Commenting on Attorney General Cox’s announcement today, Andy Buchsbaum,
regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great
Lakes Regional Center, said:

“We support the state of Michigan for taking action to protect the Great
Lakes from the threat of the Asian carp.

“Closing the locks offers a temporary fix until a long-term solution can
be implemented—namely, separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi
River.

“The Chicago diversion used to protect the Great Lakes, but now it
endangers them. We need to re-plumb the Chicago diversion, and that's
what Michigan's filing with the Supreme Court seeks to do.

“The Chicago diversion was a 19th century solution to an environmental
problem. Now it's causing a 21st century emergency. The Chicago
diversion has become a 2-way conveyor belt for invasive species—bringing
invasive species into the Great Lakes and dispersing non-native invaders
from the Great Lakes into the rest of the country.

“We need is to restore the separation between Lake Michigan and the
Chicago canal system. Otherwise, the Great Lakes are in for the worst
ecological and economic disaster since the invasion of zebra mussels.”

For more information, visit: www.nwf.org/asiancarp

National Wildlife Federation is America’s conservation organization
inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.


Jordan Lubetkin
Senior Regional Communications Manager
National Wildlife Federation
Great Lakes Regional Center
213 W. Liberty St., Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1398
www.nwf.org/greatlakes
www.healthylakes.org

Phone: (734) 887-7109 
Cell: (734) 904-1589

Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.