Asian Carp Czar Outlines Plan To Eradicate Invasive Fish

U.S. Asian Carp Director John Goss, known as the nation’s “carp czar,” unveiled a three-part strategy for combating the invasive fish that threatens to overrun the Great Lakes, the National Public Radio reports.

Gross said in an interview with NPR on Oct.7 that the plan involves continuing to remove the carp from the Chicago canal system, strengthening the electric barrier currently in place to keep the carp from passing into the Great Lakes, and researching long-term solutions like biological controls that could specifically target the carp while sparing other fish.

Other deterrents, such as sound waves, are also being tested to drive the fish away or herd them into areas for capture, he said.

Goss, appointed by the White House to the newly created position in September, is overseeing the $78.5 million federal response to the threat that Asian carp pose to the world’s largest freshwater system. Experts fear that the plankton-gobbling fish could undercut the Great Lakes’ already-stressed food chain, decimating its fish populations and endangering the region’s $7 billion sportfishing industry.

Goss said that he does not have direct authority to order actions like the closure of Chicago-area canal locks – which several Great Lakes states are seeking — but added that federal agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers do have such authority if an emergency is declared.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Circle of Blue Water News (Traverse City, MI).