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CHICAGO—The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) plans to escalate aggressive tactics in the Illinois waterways as part of their ongoing campaign against Asian carp, as revealed in its 2011 Asian Carp Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan (MRRP) issued last week.
The MRRP, an estimated $7 million federal investment, includes the use of underwater cameras, testing for Asian carp DNA, electrofishing (stunning fish to sample population size and composition), and sonar detection devices to monitor the effectiveness of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ electronic barrier and river locks.
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was outfitted with an electric barrier to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes in 2002.
In addition, the MRRP calls for monitoring of small Asian carp in the hopes of tracking reproduction sites. Rapid response measures are also being tested, including the use of hydroguns that produce underwater sound waves to repel Asian carp, should any be found.
The MRRP presents a “continuing effort to give us confidence in knowing where the leading edge of the Asian carp population is,” said Chris McCloud of the Illinois Department of National Resources, one agency contributing to ACRCC.
ACRCC manages the carp situation in depth, as a partnership of federal, state, and local entities. The plan has breadth as well; its agencies represent New York to Illinois to Michigan. These different areas and levels are “working together in an unprecedented partnership” to keep the invasive species from entering Lake Michigan, McCloud said.
ACRCC’s efforts are in their third year and remain preventative rather than reactive since, as McCloud clarified, only one Asian carp has ever been found above the electric barriers in the Chicago Area Waterway system.
Asian carp have been found outside of the Chicago area in the Illinois River and the Mississippi River. The fish are feared because they not only reproduce rapidly, but some species grow to large size and compete with native fish for food—portending a possible ecological nightmare for the Great Lakes.
McCloud said that ACRCC’s efforts are always evolving. “We must continue to learn more about [Asian carp],” and all of these measures used by the agency build on solid foundations. “At the end of the day we need to rely on science and factual information,” he said.
The carp has long been revered in Asia, and McCloud hopes that this massive effort to keep it out of the Great Lakes will be understood by everyone.The fish symbolize abundance, success, and prosperity, according to Vivien Sung in her book “Five Fold Happiness.” A Song dynasty proverb, “Carp leaping over the dragon’s gate, turning into a dragon,” meant passing the imperial examinations.
In the effort to prevent them from becoming established in the lakes, “we are being responsible to the region, the U.S., and to the entire world,” McCloud said.
