Asian Carp Found, We Need Action Now!

June 29, 2010

Last week, a 3-foot-long bighead Asian carp was found in the Chicago waterway system about six miles south of the Lake Michigan shoreline. If these invasive fish establish in the Great Lakes, they risk destroying our way of life -- threatening fishing, boating, native species, and our ability to use and enjoy the lakes.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is part of a coalition of environmental organizations asking President Barack Obama to take control of the Asian carp fight.

Please help us in urging the President to act swiftly and appoint a "federal incident commander" to coordinate the federal agencies' responses, ensure accountability, and hasten action.

You can do so by sending a pre-formed e-mail from the Sierra Club website or by calling the White House at 202-456-1111.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper's Executive Director Karen Schapiro was recently a Letter to the Editor, published in the Journal-Sentinel regarding the Asian Carp issue. You can view that letter below:

Feds must act now to stem the tide

Thank you for the Journal Sentinel editorial blasting the federal government and Illinois for their utter failure to effectively address the looming invasion of the Asian carp (June 25). Some still seem to think that the risk of disruption to the barge industry outweighs the need to protect our waters.

This is a misplacement of priorities. At stake is the devastation of the fragile ecosystem of the Great Lakes (and 20% of the world's fresh surface water), as well as the $7 billion fishing industry and $11 billion recreational boating economy. DNA evidence of the carp was found months ago in the breakwater area in Lake Michigan. Now, a live fish has been hooked in Lake Calumet.
How much more evidence is needed before all stopgap measures are applied? This is no time for political favoritism or scientific debate over the ability of the carp to reproduce in Lake Michigan. Already, they have dominated large stretches of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, rocketing themselves out of the water to injure boaters and gobbling up all the food that sustains native fish populations.

It is ironic that on the very same day the carp was caught, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved ground-breaking new rules to limit phosphorous pollution, thereby improving water quality, fish habitat and aquatic life. Our area waters, though still impaired, are far healthier than they were decades ago; for example, the Milwaukee River is now home to over 35 species of fish.

We should not surrender our gains. The feds must act now to stem the tide of the carp. The locks must be closed immediately, and plans for a physical separation of the Mississippi River basin and Great Lakes basin must be sped up.