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Asian Carp


Asian carp are a tremendous threat to the Great Lakes and could devastate the lakes if they enter our Great Lakes ecosystem. The Asian carp includes four species: black carp, grass carp, bighead carp, and silver carp.

Originally, Asian carp were introduced to the United States as a management tool for aqua culture farms and sewage treatment facilities. The carp have made their way north to the Illinois River after escaping from fish farms during massive flooding along the Mississippi River.

Due to their large size, ravenous appetite, and rapid rate of reproduction, Asian carp pose a significant threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem by consuming large quantities of phytoplankton and competing with native fish for habitat. Asian carp can grow to an average of four feet and 100 pounds, and can consume up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton per day. Carp have shown an affinity for becoming the dominant large fish species over more desirable native species or established fish that are recreationally and economically important. Asian carp aggressively out-compete and eventually displace native fish altogether. With no natural predators and the ability to produce 2.2 million eggs, the Asian carp could devastate the Great Lakes' multibillion dollar fishing industry. In addition to the threat Asian carp pose to Great Lakes fisheries, carp also pose an actual physical threat to boaters. The silver species of Asian carp can leap out of the water creating a hazard for boaters and water-skiers as the fish crash into boats, hitting people and damaging equipment.

In attempt to prevent the Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes, the Army Corps of Engineers erected a dispersal barrier system on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The electric barrier on the canal is designed to repel the carp back from entering Lake Michigan. Due to funding and safety concerns, the electrical barrier has never been operating at full strength. In November of 2009, DNA monitoring tested positive for the presence of Asian carp beyond the barrier, 6 miles from Lake Michigan.
Like all mechanical devices, the barrier system requires periodic maintenance which was conducted in December of 2009. In order to conduct maintenance, the barrier needs to be shut down. To prevent invasive Asian carp from entering the lakes while the barrier is not turned on, fisheries managers treated a portion of the canal with poison resulting in a large scale fish kill in a five-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on which the barrier resides. One Asian carp was found among the dead fish that was collected in the canal. However, subsequent netting fish revealed no Asian carp in the channel. If Asian carp have breached the electric barrier, only navigational locks would be standing in their way from entering the lakes.

Additionally, there are also other points of possible entry to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal above the electric barrier - there are low lying areas of land positioned between the Des Plaines River, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. During heavy rainfall events, these areas are prone to flooding. A significant rain could flood the banks allowing these fish to bypass the barrier and advance toward Lake Michigan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others are currently investigating potential solutions to these bypass issues.

We need to take every action necessary and possible to keep Asian carp out the Great Lakes. This includes, but is not limited to, fish harvesting, chemical controls, increased eDNA monitoring and expedited processing of the testing, finally finishing the electrical barrier system and operating it at optimal power, building additional barriers, and closing locks. However, none of these steps is 100 percent effective. Ultimately, the permanent solution is to restore the ecological barrier between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins to prevent invasive species from moving back and forth between the two bodies of water.

Recent News on Asian Carp

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has filed suit in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Michigan against the State of Illinois for allowing Asian carp to potentially invade the Great Lakes through the Chicago Canal and other managed waterways. Since filing the suit in December 2009, Michigan has been joined by the states of Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Province of Ontario. The State of Indiana has also expressed support for Michigan's action. Michigan's lawsuit asks the high court to immediately close the O'Brien Lock and Dam in the Calumet-Sag Channel and the Chicago Controlling Works in the Illinois River, a stopgap measure aimed at keeping the fish at bay. The lawsuit also requests the Court to order the Defendants to develop and implement plans for a permanent solution to the problems that would ecologically and physically separate the carp-infected waters of the Illinois River basin from the Great Lakes.
On Tuesday, January 19th, the Supreme Court refused to order emergency measures sought by the state of Michigan to stop the migration of the Asian carp toward Lake Michigan. Without comment, the Court refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have closed waterway locks and required other temporary measures in reaction to the discovery of the carp upstream in Illinois rivers. The Court’s order did not dispose of Michigan's other plea, seeking to reopen a decision from 80 years ago. That ruling, a consent decree by the court, allowed Chicago to divert a certain amount of water from the lake. A revision of that decree could still force Chicago to close its locks entirely.

Just hours later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that DNA from Asian carp was found in Lake Michigan for the first time. Sampling found one positive environmental DNA result for silver carp in Calumet Harbor approximately one-half mile north of the Calumet River and one more at a location in the Calumet River north of O'Brien Lock. These samples were collected on December 8 and recently processed.

Even though the Supreme Court already denied the original motion in January, the ruling was issued a few hours before new evidence revealed that Asian Carp eDNA was discovered in Lake Michigan Therefore, Attorney General Mike Cox announced the filing of a renewed motion with the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to close the Chicago locks.. Michigan's motion also includes an economic study on the effects of the closure of the locks necessary to separate the Mississippi River basin from the Great Lakes basin. The study, conducted by a Wayne State University transportation expert, concludes Illinois' claim that "even a temporary closure of the locks will devastate the local economy" cannot be supported. However, the Supreme Court denied Michigan's renewed request for a preliminary injunction on March 22, 2010.

On April 26, the Supreme Court denied Michigan’s motion to reopen a decision from 80 years ago that allowed Chicago to divert a certain amount of water from the lake. This effectively ends any hope for Michigan and the other Great Lakes states to get the Asian carp case before the Supreme Court. However, this does not preclude other legal options such as a case in state court or a lower federal court. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is considering whether to file a new lawsuit in another federal court.

In the meantime, attention will turn to Congress and the Obama administration to address the problem. In February, Governor Jennifer Granholm attended a White House “Carp Summit.” The meeting which included Great Lakes’ Governors and Obama Administration officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Coast Guard was to discuss strategies to combat the spread of Asian carp and ensure coordination and the most effective response across all levels of government. The result of the summit is a $78.5 million plan that outlines over 25 short and long-term actions. The Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework (Framework) calls for reduced openings of Chicago’s navigational locks, increased fish collection efforts through electro-shocking and netting operations within the waterway, expedited turnaround times on eDNA verification and doubled testing capacity to 120 samples per week, construction of barriers to address flooding events, additional chemical treatments in the case of barrier failure, and studies and research efforts. The Framework is available at www.asiancarp.org .

Congress has also been getting involved in the Asian Carp debate with multiple hearings as well as the introduction of the CARP Act by U.S. Representative Dave Camp and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. The CARP Act, which stands for Close All Routes and Prevent Asian Carp Today, would:
  • Immediately close the barriers and locks into the Great Lakes
  • Expedite the installation of interim barriers in rivers where no barriers currently exist
  • Enhance existing barriers and monitoring systems to prevent fish from crossing into the Great Lakes
  • Grant full authority to the Army Corps of Engineers to eradicate the Asian carp and prevent them from entering the Great Lakes.
A second round of poisoning is scheduled for the Chicago waterway to search for the Asian carp past the electric barrier. On May 20, officials will dump rotenone, a fish-killing poison, into two miles of the Little Calumet River below the O'Brien lock and dam. The purpose is to determine whether - and if so, how many – Asian carp might exist in that location where positive eDNA samples have been taken. The water will be treated in one day, and the recovery phase of the operation is expected to last between four to five days. During that time, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and other participating agencies will aim to recover as many fish in the application area as possible to determine the abundance and type of fish present in the treated area. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources closed the O'Brien Lock and Dam in the Cal-Sag Channel for a week while crews cleaned up the remains of approximately 100,000 pounds of dead fish. No Asian carp were recovered.

Additionally, on May 19th, Great Lake’s Attorneys General sent a letter has been sent to Major General John Peabody of the United States Army Corp of Engineers demanding that the Army Corp take certain specific actions regarding the imminent Asian Carp crisis in the Great Lakes. The letter is signed by the Attorneys General of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The letter demands five things. First, the letter demands that the Army Corp take more comprehensive action more quickly, commensurate it with the urgency and magnitude of the threat. Second, the letter requests that the Army Corp provide specific information about what is and is not being done and why. Third, the states are requesting that the Army Corp include the knowledgeable natural resource experts in the Great Lakes states in the regional coordinating committee. Fourth, the states have demanded that the Army Corp produce certain documents essential to a comprehensive understanding of the process. And fifth, the letter demands that planning for a permanent solution be accelerated for physically separating the Chicago area water system that is infested with Asian Carp from Lake Michigan.

The letter can be accessed by clicking here.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has conducted two studies focused on enhancing the efficacy of the electric barrier system and released the interim III and IIIA reports for public review on June 3, 2010. "Interim IIIA, Fish Deterrent Barriers, Illinois and Chicago Area Waterways Risk Reduction Study and Integrated Environmental Assessment" considered how technologies such as bubbles, lights and sounds could be used to deter Asian carp movement. USACE is recommending installing one acoustic bubble curtain with strobe lights (ABS fish deterrent) near the Brandon Road Lock and Dam as a demonstration project. The second report, “Interim III, Modified Structures Operations, Chicago Area Waterways Risk Reduction Study and Integrated Environmental Assessment,” evaluated the potential for risk reduction that might be achieved through changes in the operation of the Chicago Area Waterway structures, such as locks, sluice gates, and pumping stations. The Corps found that, in the end, the analysis showed that using measures such as temporary lock closures will do very little to reduce the risk of Asian carp migration. Therefore, the Corps announced that the locks will stay open seven days a week. However, the Corps wants to maintain the ability to temporarily close locks when biologists use fish poisons or other methods to go after the Asian carp. The report’s primary recommendation is to place screens on the outer two sluice gates at the O’Brien Lock and Dam similar to similar screens already placed on sluice gates at the Chicago River Controlling Works. Copies of both reports are available on the Chicago District website at www.lrc.usace.army.mil.
The nightmare scenario of Asian carp entering the Great Lakes through Chicago waterways is closer to reality as the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee announced on Wednesday, June 23rd that they had captured an invasive bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 6 miles away from Lake Michigan. This is the first physical specimen that has been found in the Chicago Area Waterway System above the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Electric Barrier System. The fish was measured to be 34.6 inches long, weighed 19.6 pounds, and was probably about 3 to 4 years old, old enough to reproduce.

Another bill was introduced in Congress - the Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act. The bill was introduced on Tuesday, June 29th in the Senate by Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Richard Durbin and by Rep. Dave Camp in the House. The bill requires the Army Corps to conduct a study on the feasibility and best means of implementing the hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins to prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins through the CSSC and other aquatic pathways. The legislation would require the study to be completed within 18 months (including two interim reports to ensure the study is making progress) and puts the CEQ in a position to oversee that the study gets done on time.
First Asian Carp caught in CAWS

A fisheries biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources holds a bighead carp caught June 22nd in Lake Calumet.

(Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

At the news of the first live specimen being found beyond the electric barrier, the Ohio Governor and Attorney General requested an Asian carp Emergency Summit to be held by July 19th to develop a strategy and timetable for immediate construction of a physical barrier in the Calumet River between Lake Calumet (where the live Asian carp was found) and Lake Michigan. The hope is that the Emergency Summit could result in actual construction of one or more barriers could be underway by August 19th.
CAWS overview Asian Carp locations
In addition to knocking on the door of Lake Michigan, Asian carp are also advancing up the Wabash River system which could allow for their potential movement into the Maumee River, a tributary to Lake Erie. Under normal conditions, there is no direct link between the Wabash River and the Maumee River. However, tributaries and drainage ditches near Eagle Marsh, a 705-acre restored wetland on the southwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana, provide a potential connection under certain flooding conditions. As an immediate preventive measure, the Indiana DNR will install mesh fencing across a section of the marsh, creating a barrier against passage of Asian carp between the Wabash and Maumee drainage basins. The goal is to have the fencing installed this summer. Although Chicago waterways remain the likeliest entry point for Asian carp into the Great Lakes, if Asian carp cross the divide at Eagle Marsh and reach the Maumee, they would be in the Lake Erie drainage basin and additional more costly and invasive steps would be required to protect the Great Lakes from the threat.

Additionally, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a new initiative to help stop the spread of invasive Asian carp species into the Great Lakes. Illinois is entering into an agreement with Chinese meat processing company Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Company and Big River Fisheries located in Pearl, Ill. to harvest 30 million pounds of carp from Illinois rivers. Big River will process, package and ship the fish to Zhuochen for resale in international markets where the fish is a delicacy.

Five states - Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania – filed a lawsuit on July 19th against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District) in federal district court. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case multiple times, the states filed their joint suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The states are claiming that that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago have created a public nuisance through the construction and operation of the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal which is allowing for the migration of the Asian carp that threatens irreparable harm to the Great Lakes and other public trust resources of the states. The states are requesting a preliminary injunction to make the Corps and District immediately take all available measures to prevent the migration of bighead and silver carp including:
  • best available methods to block the passage of, capture or kill bighead and silver carp
  • installing block nets or other physical barriers in the Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers
  • temporarily closing locks and sluice gates, except as needed for public health and safety installing grates or screens at sluice gates that will not allow fish to pass through if sluice gates are opened
  • using rotenone (poison) as needed
The lawsuit also requests a preliminary injunction requiring the Corps to expedite a feasibility study evaluating options for permanent physical separation to be completed within 18 months. Furthermore, the suit seeks to expeditiously implement plans to permanently and physically separate carp-infested waters in the Illinois River basin and the Chicago Area Waterway System from Lake Michigan to prevention migration of Asian carp and other harmful aquatic invasive species.

The first hearing in the case will be Monday, August 23, 2010, with two days reserved for live testimony during the week of August 30, 2010, if the Court determines it is needed. After the initial hearing, a federal judge has scheduled a three-day evidentiary hearing in Chicago on September 7th, 8th, and 10th, to allow for expert testimony.

While waiting for the federal government to act, Great Lakes governors and mayors announced plans to embark on a $2 million study to protect Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes from the advancing Asian carp. The initiative, formally titled Envisioning a Chicago Area Waterway System for the 21st Century, will be led by the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Cities Initiative. The study will go beyond just separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi Basin, but analyze options that could enhance the flow of cargo through the Chicago area with the use of intermodal transportation centers that would allow cargo to move smoothly between barges, trucks and rails. It will also look at upgrading wastewater treatment options for the Chicago area, considered a first step in any plan to plug the canal system because it will mean that at least some of Chicago's wastewater would once again flow into Lake Michigan. The study is expected to take 18 months. It is being funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, established two decades ago by Great Lakes governors to pioneer strategic initiatives to protect the health of the world's largest freshwater system. The study is also receiving a $500,000 grant from Chicago's Joyce Foundation other funding sources are also being secured.

TAKE ACTION

Contact your Federal Senators and Representatives and urge them to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study how to build a physical barrier and hydrologically separate the Mississippi River Basin from the Great Lakes Basin. Tell your family and friends who live outside of the Great Lakes to do the same as well.

SAMPLE LETTER– Use this letter as a template to send to your members of Congress.

For more information, visit:

Battling Back the Asian Carp www.glu.org/asiancarp
Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil
Army Corps of Engineers Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Aquatic Nuisance Species Dispersal Barriers http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/projects/fish_barrier/index.html
Stop Asian Carp http://www.stopasiancarp.com
Asian Carp and Chicago Canal Litigation  http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/blog/asian-carp/

Video Clip of Asian Carp

There are plenty of opportunities to see Asian Carp videos and news reports by going to You Tube and simply searching "Asian Carp." Some are funny, some are more serious, but all show the potential effects that Asian Carp could have on the Great Lakes recreational boating and fishing industries. Here is a short video clip that we use in our presentations that shows the Asian Carp in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8OmEr7VqI
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