Poison pours into canal to cut off fearsome fish (Asian Carp)

[depakid]

LOCKPORT, Ill. -- Officials gathering for an all-out assault on invasive Asian carp near an electric barrier in south suburban Chicago said Wednesday they don't know whether any of the feared fish already have made it to Lake Michigan. But if they have, it's likely only a handful.

A massive effort, including the largest fish kill in Illinois history, began at dusk Wednesday with electrofishing -- using electric shock to stun fish in the water -- so native fish near could be relocated before poison was dumped into a stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Electrofishing near the barrier Wednesday showed no live carp, giving officials hope that DNA previously found in those spots belonged to only a small number of the fish.

Still, "all options are on the table" to keep reproducing populations from reaching the Great Lakes, officials said.
Poison pills, sound curtains among weapons being explored. As some 300 people continue a poisoning effort today to try to ensure Asian carp don't get to Lake Michigan, scientists are studying various means to deal with the invasive fish if they do make it to the Great Lakes.

"We haven't sat idly by," said John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. One possible solution is to make the Great Lakes' most hated potential invasive species public enemy No. 1, with a bullet. Biobullets is the nickname for one possible antidote to the carp, a specialized poison pill the size of a grain of sand that could be targeted at only Asian carp, said Charlie Wooley, deputy regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It would be small capsules with a fish toxin, taken in through the fish gills, which are very fine," he said. "You could make it small enough to target only carp," saving other types of fish.

Researchers with private companies and government agencies are working on biobullets now, Wooley said. Scientists also are looking at bubble curtains, a constant wall of bubbles they've tested on some fish that repels them. They've also experimented with steady streams of noise that bother fish. Either bubbles or sound curtains could be used in certain areas to round up fish. The Asian carp then could be isolated and killed.

Researchers also are studying methods that have been successful in controlling sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, such as capturing and sterilizing fish so they can't reproduce. "Shielding the Great Lakes from harm is a national priority," said Cameron Davis, senior adviser to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Closing the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal permanently, which many say is the only way to keep out more invasive species, would have huge implications for barge operators and recreational boats that use it. "It's feasible, but it's a complicated fix," Davis said. "We will be looking at that in the coming days and months."



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[malakai2]

1. "all options are on the table"

How about engineering a new sanitary canal that doesn't connect the Mississippi River watershed with the Great Lakes watershed?

[MineralMan]

3. It's also a shipping canal. That's why.

It has to connect with the Mississippi to be of any use.

[MineralMan]

2. Odds are very high that these carp have already reached the

lake. By the time they found the evidence that they were there in the canal, the fish had probably already moved into the lake.

I suspect that this battle is lost.