Asian carp breach electric barrier, close in on Lake Michigan
By CARYN ROUSSEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 13, 2010; 8:24 AM CHICAGO — DNA from the invasive Asian carp has been found closer to Lake Michigan than ever before, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, renewing fears that the fish have breached an electrical barrier meant to keep them from reaching the Great Lakes and destroying its multi-billion-dollar fishing industry. The DNA – but no live fish – was found in three different spots along the Chicago River near the Wilmette pumping station north of Chicago, said Major Gen. John Peabody with the Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River division. The sample was taken in October, and the Corps received the results Thursday. That discovery has renewed environmentalists’ calls for emergency measures to keep the voracious fish out of the Great Lakes, including immediately closing three shipping locks that separate Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River basin to prevent the giant fish from destroying the lakes’ $7 billion fishing industry by out-competing native fish for food. The news comes two months after officials said they found carp DNA in a shipping channel several miles from Chicago. The pumping station, however, is on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, making the need for action urgent if there is hope of halting the carp’s advance, said Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “We’ve got to start making management decisions that should have been made a couple of months ago,” Brammeier said. “We’re definitely playing catch-up. We’ve been waiting and waiting while these positive samples continue to turn up.” …
