Posted on 07/04/2010 4:19:19 PM PDT by Willie Green
The fish that could eat the Great Lakes is only 6 miles away from Lake Michigan now — maybe.
The big, ugly and unbelievably hungry Asian carp has been making its way up the Mississippi for two decades and now appears to be closer than ever to migrating en masse to the world's largest body of fresh water.
If it starts reproducing there, scientists say, it's likely to eventually consume much of the plankton that forms the basis of the food chain that supports what's estimated to be a $7 billion sports fishery.
"These fish are extraordinarily prolific, and if they establish themselves in the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes are done," said Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
To stop the carp, some environmentalists say we should consider spending an untold sum to redo the engineering feat that reversed the flow of the Chicago River and linked the Mississippi basin with the Great Lakes a century ago. That would stop the invading fish — maybe.
Such are the uncertainties confronting federal officials as they consider how to cope with the greatest threat to face the Great Lakes fishery in modern times.
The trouble is, the defining words in the Asian carp story seem to be: maybe and if.
The lakes already may be in big trouble — if the lone blackhead carp that was found last month in Lake Calumet, six miles from Lake Michigan, was one of many.
And radical changes in the Chicago waterways may be able to save the lakes from the invaders from afar — if they can be done on time, and if the monster fish doesn't find some other way into the lakes, which is something that may already be happening.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews ...
You are paying anyway. The plan is multi-billion dollar dams, locks, and electronics. (Asian carp and not mexcican illegals can be stopped)
Whose taxes will pay? Yours
Creating an industry that nobody wants and can only exist by destroying an industry that is actually working is pure Granholm economics. It ranks right up there with the stupidity of farming Detroit in contaminated soils.
We haven’t even mentioned the fact that the great lakes fish are supposedly contaminated with mercury and will NEVER be a viable commodity again. This is especially true with carp which are a filter feeding species that tend to concentrate contaminants.
You’re begging the Obama administration to come up with a reason to spend billions more on study and erradication programs that will never work.
All your rambling about maintaining locks and canals is laughable considering the fact that the chicago “shipping” canal was really a means of keeping Chicago’s own sewage from washing up on the beaches. Its never been a major shipping canal anyway. In that sense you’re right, wasting millions to maintain it is foolish, close it, fill it and stop paying for it.
That photo gives me an idea for a rig. All I need is a ski boat, a small barge as a trailer, a large strong net and a wood chipper.
I don’t think you read what I wrote the way I intended it to?be read
Couldn’t the bounty be sold for cat food?
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