Thousands of native fish poisoned…only one dead Asian carp found

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INTRO: On Wednesday night, The EPA, its Canadian counterpart and DNR officials from several states put a liquid poison into a stretch of The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. They’ll be doing clean up through Saturday. They’re trying to prevent the voracious Asian carp from getting past the electric fence in the water. It has no predators. The Corps of Army Engineers is turning the fence off for routine maintenance this week.  And since the locks still open and close to move ships up to Chicago, nothing is standing in the way of the fish. At lower stretches of the Illinois River, scientists estimate there are 8,000 Asian carp per mile.  Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports.

Armed conservation officers manned check points on a broken up concrete road. Their job was to stop anybody who might try to disrupt the fish poisoning operation. The road led to an abandoned industrial site along the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal. Illinois Assistant DNR Director John Rogner said the team found one bighead Asian carp late Thursday. It penetrated the electric fence.

“Near the Lockport powerhouse we collected a single specimen of one of the Asian carps. This was a bighead carp. We believe this will reduce or eliminate any doubt of the need for this operation. We’ve now confirmed with a body what e-dna evidence has suggested thatCarp4stations

This is about 30 miles from Lake Michigan. A couple weeks ago, DNA of fish feces was found just 6 miles from Lake Michigan. Becky Cudmore is from The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. She’s one of 18 Canadians involved in the operation to pour a poison called rotenone into the waterway. It’s costing $3 million.

“We are worried. We share the waters of the Great Lakes with the United States. And we share their concern on the threat that Asian carp pose to the Great Lakes.”

Bighead carp can grow 3 feet long and weigh 100 pounds. They can eat up to 40% of their body weight in plankton a day. Silver carp grow to about 25 pounds. They can jump up in the air and injure boaters, water skiers and fisherman.

“We’ve seen what they’ve done in the Illinois and Mississippi River basin. They have taken over the systems and we expect to see the same impacts in Lake Michigan and subsequently the other lakes.”

Chris McCloud is a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He was asked what’s at stake.

“What’s at stake is a multi billion dollar sport and commercial fishing industry in the largest water body on earth. So there’s lots at stake.”

One official said the team used every drop of the poison available in the country. While McCloud spoke, boats patrolled the 5 mile long section of the canal. They picked up several tons of dead native fish and are trucking them to a landfill. The electric barrier in the river has been turned off. McCloud and the team are hoping poison will stop the carp just as effectively.

“This will help ensure that nothing gets past our main weapon while it’s down for maintenance.”

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is threatening to sue the U.S Army Corps of engineers and force them to shut down the boat locks.  Says McCloud.

“That’s not something that we’re focused here on the operation. We’ll let the lawyers handle that. We’ll go fight Asian carp.”

Hundreds of tons of coal, steel and other materials are transported on these waterways each week. People from those industries are worried. And so are people around the town of Lockport. Carpenter Kevin Grubbs was having a beer at a bar. Grubbs and other customers are angry that native fish had to be killed. And they say this is a waste of tax payers money.

“I don’t care if they would have caught 100,000 of them and killed them. They’re still in the river. They’re still next week gonna swim up the canal. You’re gonna tell me that’s not a game. You’re not ending this. You cannot defeat and wipe out a species. It’s not possible.”