Killer carp approach Great Lakes

[Diva27]

(I'm cribbing from my own cruising blog on this one, but it's so bloody alarming it needs to be shared.)
Okay, they’re not “killer” in the sense of killing us all, but if the Asian carp inching up the Mississippi system succeed in making it into Lake Michigan, it’s pretty much game over for the Great Lakes. We can all pack our boating and fishing toys and go home, because there’s going to be little left to enjoy.

Asian carp are those voracious bottom feeders and nightmare stars of online videos which show huge fish leaping out of the water and smacking grown men in the head and groin as their boats pass by. This species is the doomsday weapon of the Great Lakes ecosystem. If they make it in Lake Michigan, I’m moving to Lake Superior and hoping the locks at the Sault can keep them at bay.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports (Corps scrambling to turn up voltage on carp barrier - JSOnline) that the foreign species is just seven miles from the experimental electrified barrier the US Army Corps of Engineers has set up on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects the Mississippi system to Lake Michigan. So alarming is the situation that the USACE wants to crank the voltage up to 2 volts, because at the current test level of 1 volt, there’s not enough juice in the water to stop all sizes of carp. But proposed voltage increases are being met with resistance (no ohm jokes please) by the barge industry’s American Waterways Association.

“According to a memo from the Coast Guard, the canal will be shut down to boat traffic for most of Wednesday to see if the barrier can even function at two volts per inch. If the barrier passes that test, two or three days of additional safety tests are planned. Some are frustrated that the Army Corps waited until surveys showed the carp were mustering just below the barrier to begin the higher voltage tests. `If they had any sense of urgency, this would have been done long ago, instead of waiting until an emergency comes up,’ said Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sportfishing Council. `We're waiting until it may be too late.’”

[SEMIJim]

Diva27, I reposted your article, with complete attribution, on our lake-specific site: Killer carp nearing Great Lakes - LSCN.NET

Is that okay? (I followed that site's guidelines for submitting a news item, thus the slightly modified format.) I can change or delete it if you want.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Jim

[Diva27]

Originally Posted by SEMIJim

Diva27, I reposted your article, with complete attribution, on our lake-specific site: Killer carp nearing Great Lakes - LSCN.NET

Is that okay? (I followed that site's guidelines for submitting a news item, thus the slightly modified format.) I can change or delete it if you want.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Jim

Hey, go for it. Spread the word.

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by Diva27

Hey, go for it. Spread the word.

Cool! Thanks And thanks again for the heads-up!

Jim

[bobmcgov]

Helmet. Codpiece. Cricket bat. Sounds like a fun afternoon of carp-slapping, if you ask me.

No, I lie. That's just fear talking. The invasive carp in the Finger Lakes would bump your shins during a night swim, or at worst nibble your toes a little. But giant, malicious, groin-smacking sucker fish are apocalyptic. Forget 2V shocks. Let's roll out the nukes, NOW.

[Diva27]

Originally Posted by bobmcgov

Helmet. Codpiece. Cricket bat. Sounds like a fun afternoon of carp-slapping, if you ask me.

No, I lie. That's just fear talking. The invasive carp in the Finger Lakes would bump your shins during a night swim, or at worst nibble your toes a little. But giant, malicious, groin-smacking sucker fish are apocalyptic. Forget 2V shocks. Let's roll out the nukes, NOW.

Would it matter if we took out Chicago? Just curious.

[Hartley18]

Now that I'm here again and not on A-S...

We've had a carp problem (European Carp, they call them) in our big rivers for longer than I can remember. They're invasive, make quite a mess, kill off all the native species, including turtles, etc. and there isn't much you can do except put up with them.

One industrious crowd up along the Murray is making a buck turning them into fertiliser. Maybe someone over your way can do that too?!?

Charlie Carp Fertiliser

Just a thought..

[Diva27]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

Now that I'm here again and not on A-S...

We've had a carp problem (European Carp, they call them) in our big rivers for longer than I can remember. They're invasive, make quite a mess, kill off all the native species, including turtles, etc. and there isn't much you can do except put up with them.

One industrious crowd up along the Murray is making a buck turning them into fertiliser. Maybe someone over your way can do that too?!?

Charlie Carp Fertiliser

Just a thought..

We already have the garden variety carp, at least in Ontario, thanks to our dingbat English ancestors who imported them (as SPORT FISH) in the 19th century. The special quality of the Asian carp, beyond their voraciousness, is the unnerving way they hurl themselves into the sky whenever a motorized vessel passes by.

[Hartley18]

Originally Posted by Diva27

We already have the garden variety carp, at least in Ontario, thanks to our dingbat English ancestors who imported them (as SPORT FISH) in the 19th century.

I believe our ancestors were responsible for our problem too - that's way no-one kicks up much of a fuss.. It's like the cane toad problem - a problem you live with until someone finds a solution.

Originally Posted by Diva27

The special quality of the Asian carp, beyond their voraciousness, is the unnerving way they hurl themselves into the sky whenever a motorized vessel passes by.

Huh?!? You're Americans! Can't you just shoot them??

[scottyt]

hartley people do shoot em. here is a link with people bow hunting them, not bow fishing. i have seen a vid of some guys with shotguns but i cant find it