Protection from Carp: Great Lakes Go Too Far!
There have been some fears that Asian Carp will find there way into the Great Lakes, despite blockades created to keep them out, and this has lead to some drastic measures in order to protect the Great Lakes’ ecosystems, and more accurately, their thriving fishing industry that would be compromised if the Carp managed to consume all species lower on the food chain.
This week, in order to prevent such an occurrence in Illinois, 2,000 pounds of poison was dumped into the Chicago River in order to stop the Carp in their tracks. The poison is a natural substance that prevents fish from being able to absorb oxygen through their gills. As a result of this initiative, 200,000 of dead fish must be removed from the Chicago River, and according to experts, it doesn’t look like there are any Carp amongst them. This indicates that species in the ecosystem they were trying to protect, have been killed off in order to protect them from predators that were not a threat anyways.
It’s clear by the way the Carp situation has been handled, that this isn’t an environmental issue – no one’s attempting to preserve and protect the species present in the lakes; they’re simply trying to protect them from the natural food chain so they can continue to earn revenue in the huge fishing industry.
Image Via: Flickr User Jibby7 with a Creative Commons License
You need to think this through further, especially when some officials are calling for a permanent seperation of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. If that seperation is made, then cargo transportation to and fro will be wiped out — at great economic cost.
Look at this statement you wrote: “It’s clear by the way the Carp situation has been handled, that this isn’t an environmental issue – no one’s attempting to preserve and protect the species present in the lakes; they’re simply trying to protect them from the natural food chain so they can continue to earn revenue in the huge fishing industry.”
How is protecting the natural food chain from an invasive species not an environmental issue? Of course it is. The huge fishing industry is vital to the region, from a food standpoint and economically, of course, but that fishery is theoretically managed for at least some sustainability and not upsetting the ecosystems is in everyone’s best interest, humans and sea creatures alike.
If the environment is being protected for economic reasons, that’s better than not protecting it at all. I hope you would agree.
Bringing back the oyster and crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay, for example, are designs championed by all. Yes, they are partly economic, but they are also critical to the well-being and environmental balance of the ecosystem.
They killed a lot of fish with this poison, to be sure, but stopping these monstrous fish from getting into America’s Great Lakes is absolutely critical. Those fish are nothing but nightmarish pollution.
Get it together here on this Web site. Please.
So they killed 200,000 fish they were trying to protect… and people wonder why it’s better for nature for humanity not to intervene.
Would it not be appropriate to name the organisation/s who decided to take this incredibly unfortunate decision so they can be improved… or dissolved?
Your use of “natural” is curious. Your line of argument brings to mind the fact that cockroaches and all matter of vermin are natural, so we should embrace them in our homes? Same for disease bearing mosquitoes and flies. Indeed, Ebola is natural, as is AIDS.
200,000 fish were removed?
Where did these fish go? Were theyeaten? Were they just put in a landfill? Were they juust used as fertilyzer?
My response isn’t actually printable. Are these real people who did this ? Do they have neighbours ? Is the whole population similarly retarded – and having acces to tons of “natural” – i.e. organic ? – poison.
Is there a “natural poison” to remove short-term memory do you know ? I could use some.
there are more crap than carp in the great lake to me.
let me see.. poisons are good and carps are bad?
I think it is funny how this article does not even MENTION the actual reason the river was poisoned – as a safeguard to keep the carp from crossing into the lake during maintenance on the electric fish barrier.
Also, saying the Great Lakes has a “thriving fishing industry,” is silly. Look at harvest totals compared to decades past (before the fisheries collapsed) – they are next to nothing. Lake Superior, in fact, is phasing out commercial fishing altogether; no new permits have been issued for years.
The Asian Carp would have a devastating impact on the fisheries of the Great Lakes, which are already plagued by invasive species. I, for one, support taking drastic measures to ensure we don’t further corrupt the natural ecosystem, if we can even still call it that.
This is either lazy, or blatantly unbalanced, biased journalism.
In fact the lakes are now being managed as giant fishing holes. State DNR’s stock non-native species on a yearly basis in order to facilitate the sport and charter fishing industries. Dumping commercial fishing was a public policy decision driven by the state of Michigan. This is short sited, poor fishery management and bad ecology.
The ecosystem of the Great Lakes has changed irreparably from when it was the rich fishery of 200 years ago. Its current ecological state is not favorable to the species that were there in abundance then. It is a now a rich environment for species without predators in the ecosystem and those that are adapted to human disturbance. I would be very surprised if carp are not there in abundance in 20 years, no matter what we do, unless we could restore the water chemistry, the shorelines and the drainage basins around the Great Lakes (including the vegetation and hydrology). This is far to expensive accomplish right now, and with current technology would also require the removal of most humans from the entire basin. Oh well.
Gerard Vaughan. Do you have a cat or a dog. Both of these pets are carnivores. Huge numbers of animals, fish and cattle are killed every day for pet food. Your outrage should be directed at pet owners (unless the pet is a gerbil or rabbit). This is not to mention the wildlife that cats and dogs kill.