Fish poisoning begins on Little Calumet River

While the proponents of this method of invasive species eradication claim it to be the better of two evils, it's just one thing that I can't swallow.

www.jsonline.com

Chicago — Thursday was a rough day to be a fish in the Little Calumet River south of downtown Chicago.

Dozens of fishery crews took to the murky waters with barrels of fish poison in the latest effort to keep Asian carp from swimming up the heavily plumbed Chicago waterway system and into Lake Michigan.

"We're going to be able to kill damn near everything in here," said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy regional director Charlie Wooley at the beginning of a five-day, $1.5 million fish eradication program on a two-mile stretch of river.

Federal officials are hoping to confirm what "environmental" DNA testing has been telling them for a better part of a year: At least a tiny number of the voracious invasive carp have breached an electric barrier about 25 miles downstream from Lake Michigan.

"If there are Asian carp here, we should get confirmation of that this week," said John Rogner of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

This is the second round of poisoning in the area, the last attack in December netted 1 Asian carp, though they claim that this doesn't account for the ones that sank to the bottom instead of floating to the surface. Funny thing, in this article it states that those that sink would eventually surface in a week or so, so why weren't they able to add to that significant total of carp killed?

One other interesting twist to this particular effort is another option is to close off a couple of locks in Chicago, and some in the comments section hint that the Obama administration is playing Chicago politics with this effort.

Here's another piece on this topic for those interested:

Asian Carp: A Tale of Two Fish Poisonings

There are better ways of dealing with the invasive Carp. For example, they would do less harm to the environment by using one, or a thousand, of these...



And does anyone find all this intentional and massive contamination of our water lately very peculiar? BP Oil Spill, Little Calumet River, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch...Etc.


[edit on 21-5-2010 by susp3kt]

Originally posted by susp3kt

And does anyone find all this intentional and massive contamination of our water lately very peculiar? BP Oil Spill, Little Calumet River, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch...Etc.

[edit on 21-5-2010 by susp3kt]

Thats funny... i was thinking the exact same thing.

Maybe its a coordianated effort by the government or some agency to raise awareness and get laws enacted to protect our waterways and our life sources... or maybe its a way to get us all killed? There is a conspiracy for ya

I think what would be wise however is that since we are all going throuh an economic downturn... to find a way to create some temporary jobs for people to battle this problem... rather than killing fish that COULD BE EATEN and given to legitiamately starving people...

How dumb and ignorant our fellow mankind is sickens me. It makes me wonder why I have to be witness to such dumb and horrifying acts. Maybe im supposed to try to do something about it, because i sure as hell want to... but what... and why do people who have authority get to make stupid decisions like this? How did they earn that right? I want in on that!

reply to post by rjmelter


Yes, smoked carp is actually quite tasty. For $1.5 million, they could possibly create a clearinghouse rather than poisoning the whole river. If they offered some kind of cash reward, and threw out all the regs for fishing, that might be a little more safe to the local environment. Even building a dam with a couple locks in there to capture them.

When this effort fails, they can always nuke it.

Originally posted by dfens
reply to post by rjmelter

 

Yes, smoked carp is actually quite tasty. For $1.5 million, they could possibly create a clearinghouse rather than poisoning the whole river. If they offered some kind of cash reward, and threw out all the regs for fishing, that might be a little more safe to the local environment. Even building a dam with a couple locks in there to capture them.

When this effort fails, they can always nuke it.

You know, I've also heard nuclear flavored fish sticks are a pretty good way to meet your maker. Never actually tried one though.

I think that would be a good idea to create a way to capture all fish... but when do we ever get people with a good plan in positions that can make a real difference?

What a success! Over 100,000 lbs of dead fish!

If we add together the totals of the two poisonings intended to eradicate the pesky asian carp.. wait for it...

The total is.....







1

Yep, 100,000 lbs of dead fish... and not one Asian carp :shk:

www.wbez.org

Illinois officials are wrapping up their massive collection of dead fish in a south suburban canal. They poisoned the canal as part of their attempt to keep an invasive species out of Lake Michigan.

Feel better Chicago?

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Disgraceful.

Heartbreaking and infuriating

All the unnecessary loss of aquatic life... and

How much $$ was spent on this project and how much $$ are these so called experts getting paid?

Carp are cleaner fish... Bottom feeders.....

Who cares? It's not like a snake head infestation... They are just carp...

What harm can carp really do?

This is like firing a nuke to take care of a butterfly infestation...

Edit:

I've done some reading and have been unable to find out why the Asian carp are such an ecological disaster... I read many times that they are, but really no reasons why.

Sure they compete for food, but really so does the North American carp and the Koi which have been introduced....

Why is the Asian carp so different?

[edit on 25-5-2010 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod

This particular species of carp is not like the other invasive species of carp in the sense that it is not a bottom feeder. It gets nourishment by filter feeding, which essentially just requires it to breathe while in the water. It filters algae, plankton, and whatever else floating through the water.

If this fish gets into the great lakes system it will be an environmental disaster on par with the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. It will quickly spread throughout the entire great lakes and the countless tributaries and water ways attached to this enormous body of water.

Comparing this fish to a butterfly is absurd. It's more like an STD that will destroy the wide assortment of native fish and their offspring's chances at growing and reproducing.

Chicago should close off the canals that enter into Lake Michigan! Fill in the entire man-made tributary system that was built for ease of access into the waterways. There really should be no debate on this due to the severity of this issue.

The fish is probably already in the Great Lakes due to the ridiculous nature of politics anyways.