Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Five stinkin' miles.
Evidence of the big head Asian carp has been found just FIVE MILES from Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The bastards could be here tomorrow. The Army Corps of Engineers responded to the discovery by cranking the voltage of the electric fences "designed" to "protect" the Great Lakes from invasive species swimming through the man made canal.
When new DNA research recently showed the carp was actually 10 miles farther upriver than previously thought, alarmed Army Corps officials last month doubled the amount of voltage the barriers produced.
-- Article
(Heh. Justifiably, boaters are PISSED because the high voltage poses a potential danger to recreational boats and the canal is now off limits to them. Bummer.)
This disastrous fiasco waiting to happen reminds me. I have an idea for a couple job-producing civic economic stimulus projects.
Build a better damn barrier. And find a way to kill these fish.
If you're not familiar with the giant Asian carp, these are obviously invasive species, as the name implies, and they've quickly taken over the Mississippi and all its tributaries since 1993. In just 16 years they've overtaken entire ecosystems.
They reproduce like crazy. They love cold water. They grow to be 100 pounds in size. With razor sharp teeth. They leap out of the water at high speeds injuring boaters and knocking them off their boats. And they live mostly on plankton bottom-of-the-food-chain stuff. And once they get to 100 pounds, nothing frickin' eats them.
Well that's just great.
And we've known about them for SIXTEEN YEARS.
This incredible Huffington Post article explains some of the problems with the fence that's supposed to keep them out of the lake.
Last October, Dan Egan wrote an excellent article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel which raised worrisome questions about the development of the fish barrier and its ability to stave off this threat. He found significant issues about the transparency of the agencies involved, bungled siting, dubious engineering, and even more dubious boondoggle spending around the fish fence that, after 2 ½ years and $9 million dollars, wasn’t protecting anything but shipping interests.
Now almost a year later, little has changed except that some recent CSI-style genetic tests have shown the fish to be even closer than the authorities expected, forcing them to double the charge in the water in a desperate attempt to keep the carp at bay. The recent alarm bells have renewed public awareness…and concern about the scheme that the Corps and Guard have put into place. Last week, the Chicago Tribune pointed out that boaters have been barred from using the CalSag channel (which links the Illinois River and Lake Michigan and creates the corridor that the fish are currently utilizing) to get their boats off the lake for fear of electrocution…and explosions from sparks….
…yup, the Corps has created a solution that might not keep the fish out, BUT it could kill people if we aren’t careful!
The Dan Eagan article in question does talk about ways to fix the problem...well...one way to fix the problem
A potential remedy is a system of berms or levies between the two waterways. The Corps, which struggled for years to find the funds to build the new barrier, has approval from Congress to look into additional projects to keep the carp out of the lakes.
-- Article
Hear that Congress? State Senators? Governors? Mr. President? While we're throwing money every which way, let's toss some money into an improved way to keep the threats at bay. The Great Lakes ecosystem, and a $4.5 billion dollar a year fishing industry depends on it.
An even cheaper short term solution is to just shut the damn canal altogether. It would be another devastating blow to the Michigan's economy and the people who live here, already at 15% unemployment, as well as the other Great Lakes States. But years of neglect for these pressing matters leaves increasingly fewer options if we want to preserve what's left of the Great Lakes ecosystem and the economic benefits it provides from commercial fishing to recreation and tourism.
This is just a pooch screw all the way around.
How could we get to be DAYS or HOURS from letting of one of the worst invasive species to ravage our water systems enter the Great Lakes? We've had sixteen years of advance notice as we've watched these things chew their way through the Mississippi and tributaries! Now they're days from the great lakes, MAYBE held at bay by a questionable electrified gate the Shipping industry wants to see shut down.
We only have one shot at this. We need to stop these things now.