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
Comments