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November 21, 2009

Voracious Invader May Be Nearing Lake Michigan

By MONICA DAVEY

CHICAGO — Asian carp, the big, hungry fish that the authorities here have for years been desperately
trying to keep away from the Great Lakes, appear to have moved closer than ever to Lake Michigan.

The carp, a non-native species that some fear could destroy the ecosystem of Lake Michigan by consuming
what the lake’s native fish eat, have long been making their way up the Mississippi River, and since at least
2002 have been the focus of an enormous effort to prevent them from reaching the lake here.

But on Friday, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers reported that genetic material from the carp had
been found for the first time in a nearby river beyond an elaborate barrier system, which has cost millions
of dollars and was meant to block their passage.

That, officials said, means that the fish could be within several miles of Lake Michigan — and with only one
lock, regularly opened for boats, between them and the Great Lakes. No one seems certain how the carp
could have found their way through the complicated barrier, which is not unlike a really powerful
underwater electric fence.

And in truth, federal and state officials said, no actual carp have been spotted. But most authorities said the
genetic material was a likely sign that at least a few are present.

“This is absolutely an emergency,” said Joel Brammeier, acting president of the Alliance for the Great
Lakes, who said that recreational boating on the lakes could also be severely damaged if the carp arrived.
(Elsewhere, Mr. Brammeier said, the silvery fish, which can grow to 100 pounds, sometimes leap, hitting
boaters.)

“If Asian carp get into Lake Michigan, there is no stopping them,” he said, “and the volumes of water and
geography make containment impossible in terms of the other Great Lakes. Control is impossible.”

The carp were first imported to the United States in the 1970s, according to the Environmental Protection
Agency, so fish farmers in the South could clean their algae-filled ponds. Flooding led to their spread into
the Mississippi River system in the 1990s, and the trip north began.

Mr. Brammeier and some others called for the immediate closing of the lock on the Calumet River that still
sits between the signs of the fish and Lake Michigan, though others doubted it was feasible to stop shipping
traffic through that lock.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/21carp.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print[11/21/2009 7:33:45 AM]

Voracious Invader May Be Nearing Lake Michigan - NYTimes.com

“All options are on the table,” said Jacqueline Y. Ashmon, a spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers. “We
don’t have any specifics.”

Emma Graves Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.

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