In a Globalized World, Are Invasive Species a Thing of the Past?
Written on July 20, 2011 by Jordan Ballard
Asian Big Head Carp swim, with a White bass, bottom center, in an exhibit at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, January 12, 2010.
There’s an illegal immigrant cruising its way up the Mississippi River. The Asian carp a common name for a few separate but similar species of carp was imported into the U.S. by Midwestern fish farmers in the 1970s. The fish fit perfectly into their native Chinese and Vietnamese habitats, where they’ve been raised in rice fields for more than 1,000 years. But in the U.S., floods allowed Asian carp to escape into the wild, where they quickly proliferated in the Mississippi River system, seizing food and space from outmatched native species. Voracious eaters, the silver Asian carp can grow to as much as 100 lbs. and they have a habit of launching like missiles at the sound of a motor, braining unwary water skiers and boaters. Now the carp are on the borders of Lake Michigan, and scientists worry that if the fish establish themselves they could ruin the Great Lakes.
The threat is considered dire enough that the Obama Administration has spent nearly $80 million on Asian carp control money that is overseen by an actual Asian carp czar. The Great Lakes states have filed federal lawsuits to force the Army Corps of Engineers to step up its anti-carp measures, while the shipping industry in Illinois has fought back against the Corps’ plans to possibly shut the Chicago canal to keep out the fish. (The canal is the main route between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.) There’s even an annual carp-hunting tournament held in the small town of Bath, Illinois, where the objective is to kill as many of the fish as possible while in costume and hopefully while drunk.
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