Jumping Fish Threatens Great Lakes (Asian Carp)
Photo credit: Dickinson County News
On the shorelines of Lake Michigan and in fishing harbors all along the five Great Lakes thousands of fisherman are worried they may soon be angling for fish that are amazingly simple to catch.
The 4-foot-long, 70-pound Asian carp known along the Mississippi River as the "jumping fish" grow agitated at the sound of motors and leap out of the water, enabling anyone with strong arms and a big net to literally catch them right out of the air.
Despite the comical imagery, there is a serious problem no one wants the Asian carp in the Great Lakes. It really doesn't belong in America at all.
"I haven't seen this kind of fear in the people who fish the Great Lakes in a long time," says Marc Gaden, the communications officer of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission that looks after the fishery in eight states and two Canadian provinces. (Link)
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Right now, the only thing keeping the carp at bay is an underwater electrical barrier on the Chicago Shipping and Sanitary canal that connects the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. The government has just decided to add a backup generator to the barrier to reinforce it in case the carp decide to swim north during a power failure.