Dec. 1, 2009
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will send a crew of fisheries technicians and fish-killing chemicals to Illinois this week as part of an assault on Asian carp populations in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that threaten to make their way into the Great Lakes.
The large exotics, which escaped from agricultural facilities in the South and have become established in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, are able to out-compete native species and pose a dire threat to the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish have been kept out of the Great Lakes by a $9 million electric barrier, though recent DNA testing of water samples suggests the fish have breached the barrier and are a mere seven miles from Lake Michigan.
The electrical barrier is scheduled to be deactivated for necessary maintenance for several days in December. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources plans to kill the carp in a stretch of the canal below the electrical barrier with rotenone, a natural substance, before the barrier is shut down.
"We jumped on board the minute Illinois requested assistance with this project because the potential of these fish getting into the Great Lakes could be ecologically devastating," said DNR Lake Michigan Basin Coordinator Jim Dexter. "If they do get in, they could wreak havoc on the Great Lakes and its tributaries."
Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and out-compete native species for habitat.
The DNR will send six technicians and three boats from Plainwell and Waterford as well as most of the department's inventory of rotenone and potassium permanganate, which neutralizes rotenone, to Illinois for the project.
"Given the potential environmental damage these fish can do to the Great Lakes, we think getting on board with this project is a no-brainer," Dexter said.
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