U.S. names Asian carp czar

Chicago Tribune ^ | 9/8/10 | Joel Hood

[lado]

The White House has tapped a former leader of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Wildlife Federation as the Asian carp czar to oversee the federal response to keeping the invasive species out of the Great Lakes.

On a conference call today with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and other congressional leaders, President Obama's Council on Environmental Quality announced the selection of John Goss to lead the near $80 million, multi-pronged federal attack against Asian carp.

"This is a serious challenge, a serious threat," Durbin said. "When it comes to the Asian carp threat, we are not in denial. We are not in a go-slow mode. We are in a full attack, full-speed ahead mode. We want to stop this carp from advancing."

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“This is a serious challenge, a serious threat,” [Turban] Durbin said.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks AWM. It would be more effective, and ultimately cheaper, to put a small bounty on these fish, and put them off restrictions. They’d be fished out in a couple of months, and everyone would probably be well fed in the bargain. :’)

http://www.google.com/search?q=asian+carp

“There are many species of heavy-bodied cyprinid fish collectively known in the
US as Asian carp.”

OTOH:

http://www.google.com/search?q=tilapia

“Tilapia is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the
tilapiine cichlid tribe.”

[grellis]

If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.

[cripplecreek]

Nearly a year ago Obama stepped into the court fight between 5 states and Ontario to force temporary closure of the Chicago “shipping” canal. Obama managed to get the court to drop the case.

Also there’s the fact that invasive species is under the jurisdiction of the great lakes czar to begin with. We haven’t heard anything out of him since he was appointed.

This is a case similar to the gulf oil spill in slow motion. Obama saw the problem, actively interfered and impeded dealing with it and now grabs more money and control.

Even if we destroy the sportfishing industry of the great lakes basin (Between 6 and 10 billion dollars in Michigan alone), there will never be a carp fishing industry in its place. You can’t sell commercialy caught fish from the great lakes and that’s especially true of filter feeders like carp.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The problem with eating carp is that you need to know what parts of it are edible. [This is based on distant memory alert based on what fishermen told me once... ] Much of a carp is inedible, possibly even poisonous? There are some “stripes” of meat along the sides you can eat, but I never saw it done.