Posted 01.20.2010 at 4:35 pm
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Humans built electrical barriers and dumped poison in the Illinois waterways, but an alien species still managed to leave a disturbing presence in the waters of Lake Michigan near Chicago. Fresh lake samples taken in December revealed the DNA of aggressive Asian carp, according to the Journal Sentinel. That news surfaced even as the U.S. Supreme Court announced yesterday that it had turned down a plea from Great Lakes states to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut lakeside navigation locks against the intruders.
Asian carp feed on 20 percent of their weight in plankton daily and can grow up to 50 pounds. Their voracious appetite has allowed them to crowd out local fish species since beginning a northward migration from Arkansas in the 1970s, and they may now pose a threat to Lake Michigan's $7 billion annual fishery. Oh, and they also happen to like leaping out of the water and occasionally breaking people's jaws.
The Army Corps has built two electrical barriers to guard the waterways leading to Lake Michigan, but only the second-generation barrier has a big enough jolt to repel younger fish. That second barrier was only turned up to its full level in August, because of possible dangers to boaters.
Biologists suspect that the recent traces of Asian carp DNA -- which most likely indicates the presence of a fish from the past two days -- may come from some fish that slipped past the first-generation barrier over a year ago. That's because the Army Corps turned off the system for a week in October 2008 in order to perform maintenance.
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Science, Jeremy Hsu, aliens, asian carp, electrical barriers, fish, great lakes, invaders, invasion, invasive species, locks, migration, waterwaysBut waterways aren't left entirely undefended when the barriers are down. Illinois fishery managers dumped 2,200 gallons of rotenone toxin into the Chicago River this past December as a stop-gap measure, during another maintenance period for one of the electrical barriers. The poison left tens of thousands of fish floating belly-up, including exactly one Asian carp, CBS 2 reports.
The presence of carp DNA in the lake does not exactly count as blood in the water, and biologists note that they have not caught any actual carp beyond the electrical barriers. But the state of Michigan and other Great Lake states plan to petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to reopen the case.
Even if the states somehow succeed in compelling the Army Corps to close its huge navigation locks, they are up against the barge industry and its need to move millions of tons of cargo each year through the waterways. And besides, the Army Corps remains uncertain that even the aged locks would do much to slow or halt a foreign species invasion.
[via Journal Sentinel and CBS 2]
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Carp are bottom feeders. Which is the reason why the girl in the picture is holding a bow. You can fish them with a bow out of shallow water as their tails usually break the water-line as they feed. I never knew they fed off plankton.
Skillet-
These asian carp are a totally different species of fish then the carp most fisherman are accustomed to, and I'm pretty sure the woman in the pic is actually going after asian carp. I've seen it quite a few times now on the Illinois river, people trying to shot these things out of the air with fishing bows. It's pretty fun to watch, I think I'm gonna have a try at it this summer. It's just to bad that this things make terrible eating because of all the lil bones in them.
Lazy Americans (No offense :D)
Us Chinese people just love fish with tiny bones
I'm telling u Asian Carp was made in Chinese Laboratories*
GET USED TO IT!!! :D
*Completely made up (At least.....)
We need to find something useful to do with these carp. Find something they are good for (pet food, fertilizer, whatever) make it so it is profitable to use them, and let people fish them into extinction (or at least manageable levels). Nothing like a little money to encourage the control of an invasive species!
freakin hillarious picture. it would obviously suck to get sucker punched by a fish but as long as it doesnt happen EVER to me ill still laugh at this picture everytime i see it. oh ya and i have lots of vietnamese friends, just show them where the fish are and i promise they will get rid of them. they eat almost anything
How about feeding them algea and then squeezing them for oil like a lot of reasearchers are trying as an effecient way to make fuel from algea. Especially as fast as these guys eat. Hell maybe you could just squeeze them for oil with out the algea :)
hessbri are you replying about the fish or jakethesnakes friends?
"even as the U.S. Supreme Court announced yesterday that it had turned down a plea from Great Lakes states to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut lakeside navigation locks against the intruders"
This will be a MASSIVE blow to the Great Lakes economies.
Where are all the people complaining about "activist judges" now?
it's pretty funny the poison killed 10s of thousands of native fish, and one carp. brilliant.
Could have saved a lot more money if they would have offered free beer for a day of fishing all the carp out.
i think it's even funnier that no one seemed bothered that the poison killed hundreds of thousands of organisms....but relatively few of the ones intended... what's up with people anyway, and how'd they get approval to do this crap??