Science Article Summary - 12

Science Article Summary - 12

Feds Announce New Actions to Battle Asian Carp

[1] E. Stokstad, “Feds Announce New Actions to Battle Asian Carp”, Science Insider, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/02/feds-announce-n.html. [Accessed Feb. 10, 2010].

The Obama administration is finally starting to acknowledge the Asian Carp problem in the Mississippi River and Great Lakes as they are calling for a rapid change which entails 78.5 million dollars being set forth to fight the carp.  For many years the Asian Carp have been slowly spreading up the Mississippi River, and now the state of Michigan is calling for a change before it is too late.  If the carp are left to go freely, the fish will eventually overrun the Great Lakes, potentially crashing the 7 billion dollar sportfishing industry in that area.  Michigan tried to solve the problem on its own by suing the state of Illinois in efforts to make them close the locks spanning the Mississippi, but the state denied saying it would cause more harm than good.  Since then the Supreme Court has declined any response to the issue, and the resolution was left up to the White House to decide.

More recently the Asian Carp DNA has been found in some of the Great Lakes, but researchers are predicting that the population is not yet large enough to be sustainable with reproduction, thus meaning that there is still a chance to evade the situation.  In order to stop this onslaught of the Asian Carp, the government plans to build an electric barrier which would stop the movement of carp and allot the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the monitoring of the fish along the Mississippi river.  The state of Michigan still doesn't like this option, and calls it a "half-measure" that wouldn't be needed if they would just close the locks.