Asian Carp Invade Lake Michigan
CHICAGO, Illinois, February 11, 2010 (ENS) – For the first time, genetic material from invasive Asian carp has been detected within Lake Michigan, scientists with the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Biological Sciences reported Wednesday. Researchers said samples taken last fall showed carp DNA in the Calumet Harbor on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan near the Illinois-Indiana border. Samples also showed silver carp DNA in the North Shore Channel near the Wilmette pump station and in the main channel of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a man-made waterway that provides a direct hydraulic connection between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River Basin. The fear is that the large, voracious fish could consume all the food in the Great Lakes ecosystem, potentially causing the lakes’ lucrative fishing industry to collapse. “The Cal-Sag has numerous and repeated detections for bighead and silver carp reaching into the Grand Calumet River,” the scientists reported. Short for Calumet-Saganashkee Channel, the Cal-Sag is a 16 mile-long navigation canal in southern Cook County, Illinois that serves as a channel between the Little Calumet River and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The two invasive species, bighead carp and silver carp, can grow over four feet long and 100 pounds and quickly take over habitat upon arrival. In the Illinois River, they now make up 90 percent of the life forms present on some stretches of the river. On Monday, federal officials announced a strategy to combat the spread of Asian carp into the Great Lakes that outlines 25 short and long-term actions and $78.5 million in investments. … In November 2009, University of Notre Dame DNA testing showed that Asian carp had evaded the two-part electric barrier intended to prevent the fish from gaining access to Lake Michigan, and eventually the Great Lakes ecosystem, through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. …
