Supreme Court Will Rule on Carp

By Jolena Woehr on March 20, 2010 From Restoration campaign

UPDATE HERE
The US Supreme Court will rule as early as Monday on an emergency lawsuit filed by several states demanding the closure of river locks around Lake Michigan to prevent an invasion of Asian carp.

Closing the locks would stop the invasive species in its tracks, but the plan is unpopular with boat operators on the Chicago River. No matter what the nation’s highest court decides, hundreds of at-risk species and several multibillion dollar industries will be affected. Fishing in the Great Lakes generates $7 billion annually.


(images from Kate Gardiner under a Creative Commons license)

Asian carp probably escaped from ponds in Louisiana about ten years ago and have been making their way toward the Great Lakes, home to at least 130 endangered species.

Electric barriers erected to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes may already have been breached. Asian carp DNA was recently detected in Lake Michigan, setting off a whirlwind of activity and political dialogue aimed at saving the Great Lakes from this latest threat.

The largest of the four invasive species known as “Asian carp” can weigh up to 100 pounds and devour enough plankton and aquatic plants to throw an entire ecosystem out of balance.

Never has a single fish garnered so much interest from so many disparate groups. The thriving tourism and sport fishing industry in the Great Lakes region could be seriously threatened if Asian carp enter the Great Lakes and out-compete native species that are more attractive to sportsmen. The fish themselves might endanger sport fishermen; one Asian Carp species, the silver carp, is known for energetic jumping habits - at 40-plus pounds, these living missiles can knock a person out of a small boat.

Drastic measures

Natural resources management officials have been willing to try almost anything to block the Asian carp. One recent effort involved poisoning a canal in which the carp had been detected, killing tens of thousands of fish. Only one Asian carp was discovered among the dead - but that was enough. Officials maintained that the extermination of even one carp, found just 40 miles from Lake Michigan, was justification enough for the poisoning.

The electric barriers that were installed to block the carp from Lake Michigan need regular downtime for maintenance. This means that, every six months, another fish kill could poison thousands more fish in order to buy engineers time to maintain the barriers. Closure of river locks surrounding Lake Michigan might allow authorities to avoid further poisoning of native fishes.

Carp impact

Environmental interests are concerned for the welfare of the numerous vulnerable species of the Great Lakes. Asian carp eat continuously. A breeding population of 100-pound fish devouring plankton in the Great Lakes could starve out the local food chain from the bottom up, impacting everything from tiny crustaceans and snails to the whooping crane and gray wolf.

Chicago’s tour and charter boat operators say they face a $70 million loss if the proposal to close the Chicago River to boats goes forward. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley supports Obama administration recommendations, which include a new electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, but opposes closure of Chicago River locks. US Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI, along with the Governors of Michigan and Wisconsin, wants the locks closed until a permanent solution is found, and she’s spearheading a bill in the US Senate to force their closure should the Supreme Court not order it in its ruling.

This was Supreme Court Will Rule on Carp, an entry in our Restoration Campaign from March 20, 2010. It was filed under Rivers

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