Michigan on board with Invasive Carp.

[Walleye Express]

> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

> Dec. 1, 2009

>

> Contact Jim Dexter 269-685-6851 or Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014

>

>

> Michigan DNR to Assists Illinois on Asian Carp Project

>

> The Department of Natural Resources will send a crew of fisheries

> technicians and fish-killing chemicals to Illinois this week as part of

> an assault on Asian carp populations in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship

> Canal that threaten to make their way into the Great Lakes.

>

> The large exotics, which escaped from agricultural facilities in the

> South and have become established in the Mississippi and Illinois

> Rivers, are able to out-compete native species and pose a dire threat to

> the entire Great Lakes ecosystem. The fish have been kept out of the

> Great Lakes by a $9 million electric barrier, though recent DNA testing

> of water samples suggests the fish have breeched the barrier and are a

> mere seven miles from Lake Michigan.

>

> The electrical barrier is scheduled to be deactivated for necessary

> maintenance for several days in December. The Illinois Department of

> Natural Resources plans to kill the carp in a stretch of the canal below

> the electrical barrier with rotenone, a natural substance, before the

> barrier is shut down.

>

> “We jumped on board the minute Illinois requested assistance with

> this project because the potential of these fish getting into the Great

> Lakes could be ecologically devastating,†said DNR Lake Michigan Basin

> Coordinator Jim Dexter. “If they do get in, they could wreak havoc on

> the Great Lakes and its tributaries.â€

>

> Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of

> consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and

> can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could

> drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and out-compete

> native species for habitat.

>

> The DNR will send six technicians and three boats from Plainwell and

> Pontiac as well as most of the department’s inventory of rotenone and

> potassium permanganate, which neutralizes rotenone, to Illinois for the

> project.

>

> “Given the potential environmental damage these fish can do to the

> Great Lakes, we think getting on board with this project is a

> no-brainer,†Dexter said.

>

> The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management,

> accessible use and enjoyment of the State’s natural resources for

> current and future generations.

[Adam Bomb]

Lets hope the plan is succsessful.

[ALLEYES]

This should have been done several years ago.