By Joel Hood, Chicgao Tribune reporter
The DNA of Asian carp has been found in Lake Michigan for the first time, researchers said Tuesday, igniting a new round of calls for urgent action and renewed criticism of Illinois and the federal government for allowing the voracious carp to migrate up the state's waterways.
The alarming find came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to address the carp issue, rejecting Michigan's request for an injunction to force Illinois to stop its waterways from flowing into Lake Michigan. That left the issue in the hands of federal and state officials in Illinois.
Soon after the DNA announcement, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies attempted to downplay concerns, saying there is still no evidence that live carp have entered Lake Michigan or that the invasive species could flourish if they do.
But the discovery may bring the region a step closer to a scenario in which the carp devastate the Great Lakes' fragile ecology and commercial fishing interests. While researchers now plan more tests to verify the DNA findings, some officials are calling for a White House summit to draft a joint plan of action, while others are demanding a massive carp kill or more barriers leading to the lake.
"We've been sitting on our hands for two months. It's no surprise that these fish continue to move toward Lake Michigan," said Joel Brammeier, president and chief executive of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
"We're at that tipping point right now where the balance is still in our favor to stop Asian carp from getting in," Brammeier said. "But the longer we wait, the more that tips in the other direction."
In the short term, Illinois officials promised to do more environmental DNA testing in the lake's Calumet Harbor. One positive DNA sample was found there, and a second was located about half a mile away in the Calumet River, from where water flows freely to the lake. Researchers want to comb the Calumet area as early as next week, casting nets and using electro-shock to stun fish and bring them to the surface in the hope of finding whole carp and confirming the DNA tests.
But the broader implications of the findings are still unknown, and officials have yet to publicly discuss ways to actually control the carp population in Lake Michigan if it is discovered that the species makes it that far in large numbers.
Among a number of ideas floated this week was a downstate entrepreneur's call for a state-sponsored fish kill, in which professional anglers would round up as many carp as possible and send them to processing plants to become food, bulk protein and fish oil.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Michigan's plea to force Illinois to close navigational locks and dams in the Chicago area to prevent the carp from advancing into Lake Michigan. The court did not explain its decision, but the U.S. solicitor general had argued that Michigan should have sued the Corps of Engineers instead.
While Chicago's boating and shipping industries applauded Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling, the high court could still weigh in later on larger aspects of Michigan's case. Specifically, Michigan has asked the court to re-open a 1922 case that created Chicago's Sanitary and Ship Canal and, for the first time, linked the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.
The decision fueled more heated rhetoric in the interstate feud, prompting the governors of Michigan and Wisconsin to call for an immediate Asian carp summit at the White House where governors from the Great Lakes region could hash out a plan.
Christine Glunz, an administration spokeswoman, supported the idea, saying, "Coordinating efforts across all levels of government to defeat Asian carp is one of our immediate priorities … we would welcome a meeting with Great Lakes governors."
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who initiated the lawsuit against Illinois, responded to the ruling by calling on President Obama to close the Chicago area locks until a wider solution can be found to keep the carp out of the lakes. Cox, a Republican, accused Obama of having a "stunning" indifference to the issue.
The question of how far the carp have gotten now turns on the reliability of the DNA samplings, which even Army Corps officials admit are not "foolproof." The emerging technology, developed in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, detects fragments of carp tissue floating in the vast Chicago waterways.
Army Corps Major Gen. John Peabody said Tuesday that biologists are still trying to understand what the presence of carp DNA means, since there have been no physical sightings of the carp north of the underwater electric barriers near Romeoville. The Army Corps has collected about 700 environmental DNA samples north of the barriers since the summer, only a small handful of which tested positive for Asian carp.
But those positive tests have moved steadily north toward Lake Michigan, signaling that carp may already have found ways around the barriers.
"The fact is we don't know where the fish are," said Peabody. "DNA tells us there is a presence in those areas and we've got to begin looking at whether we are getting false positives or negatives so we know what we're dealing with."
There are many ways Asian carp DNA could make it into Lake Michigan without it signaling the presence of live carp, Peabody said. Carp could have been used as bait or consumed by a Chicagoland resident and made its way into the river via the sewer system.
"Our government's reaction to the invasion is not keeping pace," said Jennifer Nalbone, director of Invasive Species for Great Lakes United. "The carp are moving faster than the government and that is an incredible problem because we are not going to get a second chance."
http://www.chicagotr...0,4725350.story
I wonder how many and how soon other waters will be contaminated with this species if they are indeed in Lake Michigan which IMHO was a given considering how much time they've been given and the lack of biosecurity. Ever wonder if our politicians could figure out as solution to get their head out of a paper bag considering all their special interests and partisan agendas?
Edited by az9, 20 January 2010 - 09:24 AM.
NANFA Youtube Channel 
