We Continue to Watch as Carp Move Closer to Destroying Sport Fisheries

You can tell your grandchildren that we watched as Asian carp destroyed many of our sport fisheries because of inaction and/or incompetence by management agencies and government  officials.

The latest visual (photo above) comes from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and was published in the Star Tribune. From left, a grass carp, a silver carp, and a bighead carp were taken by commercial fishermen on March 1 in the Mississippi River near Winona.

Grass carp have been in Minnesota waters for years, as they have been across the country. But silver and bighead are migrating steadily northward and eventually will move into some of the state’s prime sport fisheries if they are not stopped.

They also seem destined to enter the Great Lakes, probably through the manmade connection between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin. Once established  in those waters, they could destroy a $7 billion recreational fishery.

"A silver carp discovery this far upstream is discouraging, but not surprising," said  Minnesota DNR’s Tim Schlagenhaft about the March 1 discovery . "This is further evidence that Asian carp continue to move upstream in the Mississippi River."

Read more here.

Minnesota Anglers Urge Action to Stop Asian Carp Invasion

Minnesotans are understandably concerned about Asian carp spreading to inland lakes, as they continue their migration up the Mississippi River.

A coalition of angling, conservation, and environmental groups recently sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton encouraging him to aggressively address this threat. Here’s an excerpt:

We strongly encourage you to develop and implement strong and immediate actions designed to stop Asian carp from advancing northward in Minnesota.As you know, Asian carp are known to batter boaters and even knock them into the water at the sound of a passing motor. They are voracious filter feeders that can grow to more than 4 feet long, weigh up to 100 pounds and quickly dominate a body of water by gobbling up the same food that sustains native fish populations. As these jumping, jumbo-sized fish travel up the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix Rivers northward into Minnesota’s waters, we are in an emergency situation and immediate actions are necessary.

In early December, the locks on the Upper Mississippi River closed for the winter months. This routine winter closure provides a clear opportunity to stop Asian carp from advancing further north into Minnesota’s waters. We strongly recommend that you capitalize on this winter closing by developing and implementing effective plans to block Asian carp at Lock and Dam Nos. 1, 2 and Upper St. Anthony Falls before the 2012 navigation season commences. In addition, we urge you to support reducing lock use combined with deterrent technologies that would reduce the risk of Asian carp spreading further north.

Read specific recommendations here.

I’m hopeful that Minnesota and Gov. Dayton will deal with this threat in a realistic way, setting an example for our federal Carp Czar and his lethargic bureaucracy, which seems determined to keep “studying” the issue until Asian carp are firmly entrenched in the Great Lakes.

Breaking News: Invasive Species Declare Moratorium on Spreading to Allow Feds Time to Plan

Here’s some reassuring news from the federal government, which has done such a great job of protecting our ecosystems from Asian carp, quagga mussels, round gobies, and other exotic species. In case you’re still a bit groggy from all of that holiday celebrating, that previous sentence is sarcasm.

Bowing to pressure from commercial shipping interests, the exotic pet industry, and fish farmers, the federal government has done an abysmal job, and it appears that it will keep on keeping on in that vein.

As part of its Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study, the Corps of Engineers is offering 90 proposals for keeping Asian carp and other invasives from migrating into and out of the Great Lakes. Under the present schedule, those options would be narrowed by 2015, with final recommendations made to Congress the following year.

Isn’t that great? In the meantime, carp, mussels, and dozens of other invaders will halt their spread and devastation as a gesture of good faith. That’s more sarcasm, folks.

In an editorial, the Toledo Blade recently said this:

“Government officials did little to stop the northerly migration of voracious Asian carp for decades. Evidence of their DNA turned up in 2009 beyond a series of electrical barriers near Chicago that had been set up to repel a smaller and less-threatening exotic species, round gobies. The barriers have since been modified to turn away carp as well.

“That's the plan, anyway. But if it doesn't work, the carp could devastate Lake Erie. More fish are spawned and caught in Lake Erie than in all of the other Great Lakes combined. Most of the activity is in the lake's western basin, near Toledo.

“The obvious solution, widely advocated by leading Great Lakes scientists, is a complete separation of the lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. But that course would be expensive and politically controversial, requiring one of the largest engineering feats in North American history and costing billions of dollars.

“Litigation over the future of Chicago-area shipping locks pitted Illinois against other Great Lakes states, and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Obama Administration supported efforts to keep the locks open.

“Frustrated by the agonizingly slow movement of the anti-carp bureaucracy, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) is sponsoring a measure that would require the Corps to pick up the pace. It deserves support.”

You can learn more about the Corps proposals and comment upon them (by Feb. 17) by going here. Probably would be best to avoid sarcasm in your comments. 

Conservation Groups Push to Protect Minnesota Fisheries from Asian Carp

The effort to keep Asian carp out of Minnesota lakes is heating up, in the wake of the discovery of silver carp DNA as far upriver as Coon Rapids on the Mississippi River.

The Star Tribune reports that a coalition of conservation groups wants officials to permanently close the Mississippi River lock at the Twin Cities Ford Dam, in hopes of better protecting Mille Lacs and other fisheries. Should silver and bighead carp become established above the Twin Cities, they then could push into tributaries leading to popular recreation lakes.

The Star Tribune says this:

“When the Mississippi's chain of lock and dams closes for the winter, on Dec. 5, the one at the Ford dam should stay closed after ice-out until state and federal authorities adopt some long-term carp prevention strategy, the advocates said this week.

“The coalition will present its plan at Gov. Mark Dayton's next carp summit Dec. 20. It calls for short-term priorities to be enacted this winter, mid-term priorities to be completed over the next six to 18 months and long-term priorities for over 18 months.”

Asian Carp Could Be on Way to Mille Lacs Lake, Other Minnesota Fisheries

Asian carp DNA has been found above a key barrier on the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The good news is that no live fish have been found.

But if the exotic species are above Coon Rapids Dam, they could move into the Crow and Rum River systems and possibly even into Mille Lacs Lake.

“We believe that the risk is just too high to not assume that there are live fish upstream,” said Tim Schlagenhaft, Mississippi River manager for the Department of Natural Resources. “Consequently, we need to move forward.”

Read more here.

And in related news:

A federal report showing that cargo traffic on Chicago-area waterways has been flat or declining for 15 years was quickly embraced by those who support closing locks or installing barriers to keep invasive species like the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Michigan officials, who have joined other states in a lawsuit to have some Chicago-area locks closed, pointed to the findings as evidence that the Great Lakes shipping industry would not be dramatically affected if barriers were erected.

"Those findings are in agreement with the study that we commissioned two years ago that found that canal traffic was not only declining but was a far less than significant portion of the Chicago economy," said John Sellek, a spokesman for the Michigan attorney general's office.